One thing I have sometimes wondered. Say there are four aircraft sitting on QRA, all bombed up and waiting the order to go. The crew of one aircraft mutually agree they are off anyway, and scramble independently and head off Eastward.
Once they are airborne, I have always assumed they had total autonomy and as long as all crew members carried out the correct procedures there would be no external way of stopping them releasing the weapon, other, of course, than shooting them down (which I guess would have happened).
Pretty unlikely scenario I agree, but in theory could a rogue crew have got through and carried out a nuclear strike? In the Dr Strangelove scenario, the box which receives the authorisation code has been damaged in the missile attack, but as far as I know there was no equivalent to that box in V Force aircraft.