2 days worth of Missiles
Interesting discussion.
BRIXMIS book by Tony Geraghty seems to be a decent history on what was going on in East Germany from 1946-90 with some telling insights in the ability to set up on an Autobahn as an airfield for attack operations for the weekend.
There is truth in the viewpoint that UK alone would not have been attacked and therefore all USSR assets would not have been deployed simultaneously on the UK because of the counter punching that the USSR would be getting from everywhere.
The use of tactical nukes against armour would in many cases have destroyed that as a marching machine pretty quickly.
A second more difficult question to answer. Given the dire economic straits the UK was in during the 1970's ( seems familar) would it have been justifiable to have avoided spending it on building a couple of hospitals or schools to have given 2 extra days supply of missles that ultimately were not used for purpose.
Yes hindsight is great and now it looks correct but if you an F4 pilot out of missiles with a Russki bomber on the way then maybe its a different scenario.
BRIXMIS book by Tony Geraghty seems to be a decent history on what was going on in East Germany from 1946-90 with some telling insights in the ability to set up on an Autobahn as an airfield for attack operations for the weekend.
There is truth in the viewpoint that UK alone would not have been attacked and therefore all USSR assets would not have been deployed simultaneously on the UK because of the counter punching that the USSR would be getting from everywhere.
The use of tactical nukes against armour would in many cases have destroyed that as a marching machine pretty quickly.
A second more difficult question to answer. Given the dire economic straits the UK was in during the 1970's ( seems familar) would it have been justifiable to have avoided spending it on building a couple of hospitals or schools to have given 2 extra days supply of missles that ultimately were not used for purpose.
Yes hindsight is great and now it looks correct but if you an F4 pilot out of missiles with a Russki bomber on the way then maybe its a different scenario.
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Hmmm... reading this thread makes me think there are a few folks on here that could do a decent re-write/update of "Red Storm Rising" 
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Haa! That reminds me of a war story.....
Many moons ago in the 80s I went as a UK MC to the Warrior Prep Center at Ramstein. (Nice museum at the time with all sorts of exhibits of aircraft, missiles etc).
During Day 1 of the exercise (scenario of an attack against the UK) they threw the entire enemy ORBAT at us across the Central Region with no attrition from the central region AD assets. Realistic, right?
We scrambled out fighters/tankers using the computer, put them on CAP and made a fair hand of the first couple of waves, but with a lot of losses. We could also divert the fighters to land at alternate airfields as their MOBs were taken out of action.
In an idle moment, however, and having read Red Storm Rising, I found I could also divert the USN Phoenix equipped F14s which, in the scenario, were covering the GIUK gap.
So, first thing on the morning of Day 2, before their distaff called Startex, I diverted them all to LU, and then launched them against the first wave and wiped it out.
The USAF running the exercise were not impressed.
Many moons ago in the 80s I went as a UK MC to the Warrior Prep Center at Ramstein. (Nice museum at the time with all sorts of exhibits of aircraft, missiles etc).
During Day 1 of the exercise (scenario of an attack against the UK) they threw the entire enemy ORBAT at us across the Central Region with no attrition from the central region AD assets. Realistic, right?
We scrambled out fighters/tankers using the computer, put them on CAP and made a fair hand of the first couple of waves, but with a lot of losses. We could also divert the fighters to land at alternate airfields as their MOBs were taken out of action.
In an idle moment, however, and having read Red Storm Rising, I found I could also divert the USN Phoenix equipped F14s which, in the scenario, were covering the GIUK gap.
So, first thing on the morning of Day 2, before their distaff called Startex, I diverted them all to LU, and then launched them against the first wave and wiped it out.
The USAF running the exercise were not impressed.
