A couple of questions
Thread Starter
Mainjafad, Nutloose, pr00ne and Pontius Pilot, many thanks, you've cleared my head and fitted the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. I was never sure if the Hunters, certainly, pre 1957, were dual assigned to close air support for example. I knew that the USAF oversaw and maintained the nuclear weapons/warheads which they owned but which under Project E UK crews would deliver. The same for some other NATO countries, Netherlands, Belgium and FRG. But Tactical Depot Squadron sounds right. What I could never understand, perhaps being simplistic, is the RAF/USAF maintained peace-time air defence of FRG airspace until the end of the cold war while the Luftwaffe would still carry nuclear bombs and the Heer light the blue touch paper on Pershings, albeit under the same type of rules governing oversight and maintenance?
Pontius, I stand corrected, but I recall reading something about mk 43 warheaded Torpedoes!?
Once again thanks all.
FB
Pontius, I stand corrected, but I recall reading something about mk 43 warheaded Torpedoes!?
Once again thanks all.
FB
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They were VERY hot on the 'no lone zone' regs. I always wondered how the Jaguar coped with these regs as, in theory, the moment the aircraft taxied (which RAFG alert aircraft never did) the pilot should have been shot dead by the sentry if that sentry was sticking to the rules...
the three man principal being no longer in effect. If I remember correctly one intake blank was left in the Jag as a safety measure to prevent a rogue pilot starting up both and departing, but if you’ve ever been in a HAS during a Jag start the exhaust from the running engine used to blow any intake blanks out.Plus starting up would raise alarms bells with everyone and he would have needed us to cooperate opening the HAS up unless he did it himself, he would then be faced with the huge electric gates to get out of QRA which he had no control over.
The RAF was also VERY hot on the “no lone” zones.
Timelord,
Thanks for the correction, I was only ever on the F4, never Buccaneer, so many thanks for correcting my tardy assumption.
Thanks for the correction, I was only ever on the F4, never Buccaneer, so many thanks for correcting my tardy assumption.
Mainjafad, Nutloose, pr00ne and Pontius Pilot, many thanks, you've cleared my head and fitted the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. I was never sure if the Hunters, certainly, pre 1957, were dual assigned to close air support for example. I knew that the USAF oversaw and maintained the nuclear weapons/warheads which they owned but which under Project E UK crews would deliver. The same for some other NATO countries, Netherlands, Belgium and FRG. But Tactical Depot Squadron sounds right. What I could never understand, perhaps being simplistic, is the RAF/USAF maintained peace-time air defence of FRG airspace until the end of the cold war while the Luftwaffe would still carry nuclear bombs and the Heer light the blue touch paper on Pershings, albeit under the same type of rules governing oversight and maintenance?
Pontius, I stand corrected, but I recall reading something about mk 43 warheaded Torpedoes!?
Once again thanks all.
FB
Pontius, I stand corrected, but I recall reading something about mk 43 warheaded Torpedoes!?
Once again thanks all.
FB
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I am not sure how many Hunter 5 Squadrons were active in RAFG by 1957 but once they started to convert to Hunter 6 the numbers came down to 5.Three were based at Gutersloh - 14, 20 and 26 Squadrons and 4 and 93 squadrons at Jever. Conversion to Hunter 6 was completed by May 1958. Their principle role was air defence with ground attack as a secondary role. However more emphasis was being placed on the ground attack role by mid 1960 although very little practical training was provided to the pilots other than air to ground firing. At the end of 1960 another major change occurred with a major shuffling of the pack - some squadrons changing name plates while others ceased operation altogether. The Hunter 6's were replaced by FR10's and the Swift FR 5's retired.
I was there for some of that time and it is now over 60 years ago and my memory is not quite as good as it was back then.
I was there for some of that time and it is now over 60 years ago and my memory is not quite as good as it was back then.
Thread Starter
Indeed, as pr00ne says, by about 1963, there was nothing left in RAFG of Battlefield support nature except the Fighter Recce Hunters and whatever the Javelins could do, but they were all Firestreak armed by then as per SACEUR requirements. When I say what they could do, I understand the Javelin crews had a go at G/A from time to time with their 30mm adens, but nothing to slow things short of an all out nuclear exchange. Worrying times really. 2 ATAF's remit, blast a radioactive path for SAC and Bomber Command to administer the final blow.
FB
FB
Points of Information
FB, the US Mk 43 was a lightweight HE torpedo (HBX), the first capable of being dropped from helicopters. It had a range of c.2.25 nm. RAFM Cosford has one that, for training purposes, could release dye and be recovered. (Produced 1951 to 1959) The RN bought 50 of them.
The US Mk 45 was the nuclear torpedo (W34 warhead), in service from 1959 and as far as I know US only and submarine lauched. (Produced 1959 to 1976)
I presume the St Mawgan weapon referred to was the US Mk57/B57 for Nimrod. (Produced 1963 to 1967)
Over the years the RN made proposals for nuclear versions of both the Mk8 and Tigerfish but they didn't get far.
Never come across an air dropped nuclear torpedo but then I never knowingly had the need to know.
Mud-moving Hunters to nuclear armed torpedos PPRuNe thread drift at its best.
FB, the US Mk 43 was a lightweight HE torpedo (HBX), the first capable of being dropped from helicopters. It had a range of c.2.25 nm. RAFM Cosford has one that, for training purposes, could release dye and be recovered. (Produced 1951 to 1959) The RN bought 50 of them.
The US Mk 45 was the nuclear torpedo (W34 warhead), in service from 1959 and as far as I know US only and submarine lauched. (Produced 1959 to 1976)
I presume the St Mawgan weapon referred to was the US Mk57/B57 for Nimrod. (Produced 1963 to 1967)
Over the years the RN made proposals for nuclear versions of both the Mk8 and Tigerfish but they didn't get far.
Never come across an air dropped nuclear torpedo but then I never knowingly had the need to know.
Mud-moving Hunters to nuclear armed torpedos PPRuNe thread drift at its best.
Thread Starter
Points of Information
FB, the US Mk 43 was a lightweight HE torpedo (HBX), the first capable of being dropped from helicopters. It had a range of c.2.25 nm. RAFM Cosford has one that, for training purposes, could release dye and be recovered. (Produced 1951 to 1959) The RN bought 50 of them.
The US Mk 45 was the nuclear torpedo (W34 warhead), in service from 1959 and as far as I know US only and submarine lauched. (Produced 1959 to 1976)
I presume the St Mawgan weapon referred to was the US Mk57/B57 for Nimrod. (Produced 1963 to 1967)
Over the years the RN made proposals for nuclear versions of both the Mk8 and Tigerfish but they didn't get far.
Never come across an air dropped nuclear torpedo but then I never knowingly had the need to know.
Mud-moving Hunters to nuclear armed torpedos PPRuNe thread drift at its best.
FB, the US Mk 43 was a lightweight HE torpedo (HBX), the first capable of being dropped from helicopters. It had a range of c.2.25 nm. RAFM Cosford has one that, for training purposes, could release dye and be recovered. (Produced 1951 to 1959) The RN bought 50 of them.
The US Mk 45 was the nuclear torpedo (W34 warhead), in service from 1959 and as far as I know US only and submarine lauched. (Produced 1959 to 1976)
I presume the St Mawgan weapon referred to was the US Mk57/B57 for Nimrod. (Produced 1963 to 1967)
Over the years the RN made proposals for nuclear versions of both the Mk8 and Tigerfish but they didn't get far.
Never come across an air dropped nuclear torpedo but then I never knowingly had the need to know.
Mud-moving Hunters to nuclear armed torpedos PPRuNe thread drift at its best.
I understand that the mk 43 was the Warhead/Bomb which replaced the mk 7, I imagine pr00ne will concur unless I'm off beam again. Hence my confusion with mk 43 Torpedos
FB
Thread Starter
Indeed,
I flew in and out, or was it the other way round, of Tegel when I going home on leave. There was the Britannia Airways 737 once a week, every Wednesday into Gatow so rather limited. Then there was what ever flew in and out of the US occupied original Berlin Airport, Tempelhof, it always looked abandoned to me but I understand it was still the principal Berlin airhub into the 1960s, if the Harry Palmer films are anything to go by.
Then there was/is Schonefeld of course!
FB
I flew in and out, or was it the other way round, of Tegel when I going home on leave. There was the Britannia Airways 737 once a week, every Wednesday into Gatow so rather limited. Then there was what ever flew in and out of the US occupied original Berlin Airport, Tempelhof, it always looked abandoned to me but I understand it was still the principal Berlin airhub into the 1960s, if the Harry Palmer films are anything to go by.
Then there was/is Schonefeld of course!
FB
