'Falklands' Most Daring Raid'
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
It was stated that the Vulcan stopped doing AAR years before as it was too dangerous. I would agree it was sporty but that was not the reason why.
I did the AAR course in 1964 and we would have worked up to use the Valiants. The scheme was that route activation would be done with Valiants at Malta, Aden, Gan and Singapore and the Vulcans could then flow down the route.
The premature grounding of the Valiants cancelled that plan. Simply the Victor 1 replacements could not uplift enough fuel and needed to do tanker-tanker refuelling first. Route activation by Victors would take too long and the Vulcans could reach Singapore sooner.
By the time the Victor 2 was in service the requirement had gone away and the priority shifted to refuelling the Lightnings and F4s and trailing other FJ across the pond.
I did the AAR course in 1964 and we would have worked up to use the Valiants. The scheme was that route activation would be done with Valiants at Malta, Aden, Gan and Singapore and the Vulcans could then flow down the route.
The premature grounding of the Valiants cancelled that plan. Simply the Victor 1 replacements could not uplift enough fuel and needed to do tanker-tanker refuelling first. Route activation by Victors would take too long and the Vulcans could reach Singapore sooner.
By the time the Victor 2 was in service the requirement had gone away and the priority shifted to refuelling the Lightnings and F4s and trailing other FJ across the pond.
Enjoyed watching this last night, some good stuff, but it seemed to me a lot of "glossing over", particularly towards the end in terms of how they got safely back to ASI - apparently "a miracle occured" and that was it!
It does seem a pity, though, particularly bearing in mind Martin W's heavy involvement in the programme, that a link was not made (maybe at the end) to bring us to the present day and give plug a to VTTS....many more casual observers would probably be amazed to know that the man exercising XH558 over their heads at RIAT etc. 30 years on is the same guy who carried out this mission (albeit as reserve to.....
).
It does seem a pity, though, particularly bearing in mind Martin W's heavy involvement in the programme, that a link was not made (maybe at the end) to bring us to the present day and give plug a to VTTS....many more casual observers would probably be amazed to know that the man exercising XH558 over their heads at RIAT etc. 30 years on is the same guy who carried out this mission (albeit as reserve to.....
).
Mainjafad, I passed through Locking in '85 whereabouts was the system? - I recall our '3D' being up near the hangars, but not the former Argentinian unit.
Back on thread. Good program that would have been accessible to everyone at it's narration level. - It really was daring.
Wonder how we worked things better for subsequent raids?
Back on thread. Good program that would have been accessible to everyone at it's narration level. - It really was daring.
Wonder how we worked things better for subsequent raids?
More bang for your buck
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Didn't they have a second go and have to landed in Brazil? I thought they might of mentioned it for completeness.
There were 7 Black Buck raids in all. The last one I believe was also flown by Martin Withers
Two of the seven planned Black Buck raids were aborted (BB3 due weather & BB4 due tanker snag).
Black Buck 6 damaged its refuelling probe on the return leg and diverted to Rio de Janeiro.
Black Buck 6 damaged its refuelling probe on the return leg and diverted to Rio de Janeiro.
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I thought it was an enjoyable, informative and no-frills production. I understand that Ward has already gone into print with predictable denunciation ----
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BB6
Yes XM597 (now residing at East Fortune) diverted to Rio with a U/S probe.
On landing they had <2000lbs of fuel remaining (not enough for 1 visual circuit!)
The crew were held for 9 days and only released because the Pope was due to land at the same airfield the following day (Imagine the media furore if JP2 was kissing the tarmac with an impounded Vulcan in the background!)
One Shrike missile was hung-up, and the Brazilians kept it.
XM597 sports 2 shrikes and a Brazilian Flag as it's nose-art!
On landing they had <2000lbs of fuel remaining (not enough for 1 visual circuit!)
The crew were held for 9 days and only released because the Pope was due to land at the same airfield the following day (Imagine the media furore if JP2 was kissing the tarmac with an impounded Vulcan in the background!)
One Shrike missile was hung-up, and the Brazilians kept it.
XM597 sports 2 shrikes and a Brazilian Flag as it's nose-art!
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I also thought it was generally excellent, but there was a certain amount of uneccessary "lilly gilding", such as the footage of destroyed Pucaras and buildings in a manner that suggested that the raids were in some way responsible for their state. Linking the pics of the crater with the general airfield destruction was a bit dodgy in my view.
The raids were very impressive from the point of view of the participants, but the program should not attempt to credit them with more than they did in terms of destruction.
I'm not taking away from their bravery, I had a pucker just thinking about flying those things in the south atlantic with no fuel.
The raids were very impressive from the point of view of the participants, but the program should not attempt to credit them with more than they did in terms of destruction.
I'm not taking away from their bravery, I had a pucker just thinking about flying those things in the south atlantic with no fuel.
I thought the 'given the choice between Poert Stanley Airfield and Leningrad, give me Port Stanley every time' quote was excellent. The latter would have been a one way trip.....
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such as the footage of destroyed Pucaras and buildings in a manner that suggested that the raids were in some way responsible for their state
From the photos that I've seen (and there's one in the Vulcan 607 book), that's precisely what happened.
Enjoyed watching this last night, some good stuff, but it seemed to me a lot of "glossing over",
Good to see one of my former Bulldog QFI's doesn't seem to have aged at all and in good health, but found it interesting that another pilot on the aircraft, MW's "constituted" co-pilot, didn't get a mention....
N707ZS wrote
That was an anti-radar mission. That Black Buck was armed with AGM-45 Shrike missiles. See following for info.
RAF - Operation Black Buck
Operation Black Buck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Didn't they have a second go and have to landed in Brazil?
RAF - Operation Black Buck
Operation Black Buck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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It's been a few years since I read Vulcan 607 so the programme was a nice little refresher, and good to hear the accounts from actual crew members too.
My only gripe was that approx 45mins or so (minus the adverts) it just wasn't long enough and probably deserved another 20 mins where more details could have been covered, like the reasons for bombing the runway the way they did and the flight back.
Still a very enjoyable watch though.
My only gripe was that approx 45mins or so (minus the adverts) it just wasn't long enough and probably deserved another 20 mins where more details could have been covered, like the reasons for bombing the runway the way they did and the flight back.
Still a very enjoyable watch though.
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The Air Defense in the Islands
In the following posts I'm going to detail the Air Defense that was in place on the Islands that the Royal Navy Pilots and Air Force Pilots had to overcome .-
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Air Defense
The Air Defense on the Islands was based on the GADA 601 , this unit had the most modern material , so it was used as the Pilar to start the build up .- Several other Units added material to this buildup this plan .-
Gada 601 ( the whole unit deployed with it's 35 mm Skyguard , the Long Range Radar , and the Air Post Command ) Gada 602 ( Deployed one Roland and one Tiger Cat Seccion ) Gada 101 Deployed with its 20 mm - Units from the Air Force deployed Superfedermouth ( I think they were 30mm ) and Navy deployed 20 mm Rymetal - Blow Pipes were deployed mainly with the Commands .-
There is a Graffic that show each ones location , if someone has it please bring it in .- If someone notices something missing from this list also bring it in .-
Gada 601 ( the whole unit deployed with it's 35 mm Skyguard , the Long Range Radar , and the Air Post Command ) Gada 602 ( Deployed one Roland and one Tiger Cat Seccion ) Gada 101 Deployed with its 20 mm - Units from the Air Force deployed Superfedermouth ( I think they were 30mm ) and Navy deployed 20 mm Rymetal - Blow Pipes were deployed mainly with the Commands .-
There is a Graffic that show each ones location , if someone has it please bring it in .- If someone notices something missing from this list also bring it in .-
A question for our Argentine contributors. Was the arrestor gear deployed and tested during April? I note that the claims come from Argentine sources. Also the claim of the cargo vessel carrying the equipment to be used in the runway extension?
Operation Black Buck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Operation Black Buck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Another common misconception is that the Argentine forces made no attempt to use the airfield at Port Stanley as a base for high-performance jets. In early April the Argentine Naval Aviation installed arrestor gear on the runway to enable short landings, and A-4Q Skyhawks of 3 Escuadrilla and S-2 Trackers (2-AS-22, 2-AS-25) deployed to the airfield performing several reconnaissance missions until April 13 when they were redeployed to the continent to embark on the Veinticinco de Mayo.
After the carrier returned to port, and due to the continuous naval bombardment of Stanley, the aircraft operated from Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego and Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz respectively [43][44] Engineers of the Argentine Air Force had added additional steel matting to extend the parking area for the Pucaras and Aermacchis that used the airfield but the main equipment to extend the runway was still on the ELMA cargo ship Cordoba which could not cross to the island due to the British submarine threat [45]
After the carrier returned to port, and due to the continuous naval bombardment of Stanley, the aircraft operated from Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego and Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz respectively [43][44] Engineers of the Argentine Air Force had added additional steel matting to extend the parking area for the Pucaras and Aermacchis that used the airfield but the main equipment to extend the runway was still on the ELMA cargo ship Cordoba which could not cross to the island due to the British submarine threat [45]
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Air Defense
The points to protect were , the Airport , the Post Comands from the Brigades , the Ground Artillery ) - Based on this , the Airport was mainly covered by Skyguard 35 mm . by Superfledermouth and by some other 20 mm .- The other 35 mm Skyguards and smaller Triple AAA materials were deployed to the south and west of town . One 35 mm Skyguard deployed to Goose Green and the Roland was changing locations every day , rotating from outside the Airport to Sapper Hill .-