Originally Posted by
MAINJAFAD
Yep, a British built "Red Snow" warhead based on US B-28 design and some ballast. You could have got 4 US B-28's in a Vulcan, but the ballistic data for the original YS bomb was already known so it was quicker to modify the YS bomb casing to hold the smaller US warhead than to modify the NBS to drop the B-28 in its US configuration (according to a discussion in the latest RAFHS journal which covers the development of British nuclear weapons for the RAF as one of its topics).
Indeed. We believed it would work, we believed the aircraft would work*, we believed we would reach the target but we were only cleared to Top Secret.
The bottom line, it could have been a bluff.
After 28 days on stand-by the aircraft was disarmed, underwent a BF, and then was flown off. No rectification was undertaken if the 'post-QRA fly-off' was to prove a success.