Tornadoken, (thanks for the references) I am not sure where you found me saying we did not train for the national plan. All targets were prepared and studied to the same degree as the SACEUR targets. The QRA crews had go-bags with both targets and only after receiving Positive Release would they know which target to attack.
One thing I never checked was the potential route cross-over. Crews would be flying their primary SACEUR route to the go/no go line and would need to switch flight plans and charts etc to the secondary national targets. I never checked to see how close the two high level transit route were - one of the many details that were overlooked.
In the high-level mission days we used cities as training targets - Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, London - but once we went low level, for obvious reasons we switched to less populated targets although Newcastle remained for some time for pop up attacks.
What was true is that we never had a force generation against the National Plan targets. One reason might have been the necessity of excluding USAF Exchange Officers from play.
I have spoken with Kristian and can say that while MacMillian was undoubtedly correct Murray was 100% wrong. National Plan target plans were generally changed in January each year with plans being issued around November to allow crews time to prepare and study the new routes.
Last edited by Pontius Navigator; 28th Oct 2016 at 13:47.