Originally Posted by
Squirrel 41
Without questioning the dedication and the bravery of the V-Bomber / BLUE STEEL crews, its ability to meet the Moscow Criterion by the late 1960s was clearly open to question.
I have not heard of it put that way before. I know, from a small security breach, that the Mk 1a Vulcans were targeted on Moscow when plan was for high level penetration. The main defence was the somewhat inflexible SA1 concentric rings.
Once the force went low level the FF Vulcans would have been hard pushed to cover Moscow and as far as I am aware any coverage would have been the Blue Steel Victors and Vulcans - with 5 aircraft on QRA.
The low level launch of the Blue Steel meant a much closer approach to the target but the missile flight path would then be inside the SA1/2 envelope. It was the missile that was more vulnerable, not the aircraft.
Of course the aircraft was the back up if the Blue Steel went U/S - very sporty doing a popup attack.