I think a lot of Brits are military history buffs, because I’m always running into them on the various social media forums. Which is all well and good, except for when these things turn into nationalistic chest-thumping contests.
The latest thing I’ve seen going around the you-tubes is a series of videos with similar titles about “American reacts when Britain nuked America — twice!”
Obviously this was simulated during some exercise because I don’t recall seeing any post-apocalyptic ruins on the East Coast, unless you count Newark.
So let’s look at what really happened.
Way back in 1961 NORAD staged a massive air defense exercise called Sky Shield II. Roughly 250 American and British bombers simulated an “enemy” attack while around 1800 US and Canadian fighters attempted to intercept them. All civil air traffic over the US and Canada was stopped for the duration of the exercise (approximately 12 hours).
Part of the attacking bomber force was composed of Vulcan bombers from the RAF. Using their excellent for the time electronic countermeasures, they were able to slip in undetected and hit their simulated targets.
Definitely one of the better looking Cold War aircraft.
They put one over on the yanks and they’ve been patting themselves on the back ever since. You can start humming Rule Britannia now if you want.
Rare shot of a Vulcan, B-58, FB-111, B-52 and I think a Vickers Viscount to the right.
But wait, there’s more to the story. Most of the other bombers, B-52s at high altitude and B-47s at low altitude, also got through to their targets. In fact, only about one fourth of the bombers would have been intercepted had this been the real deal. That probably says more about the state of air defenses in 1961 than anything else.
Vulcan, B-52 and B-58. One of these is still in service.
Fortunately we were defending against the Soviet Union and not the United Kingdom. To my knowledge Soviet bomber crews never trained the way we (or the RAF) did.
The times I simulated a Soviet bomber in exercises we were easily shot down. Once the Russians developed ICBMs they never looked back. By the 1980s we knew where a TU-95 was pretty much from the moment it took off.
When they build something that works they stick with it.
The RAF also participated in the Giant Voice 1974 exercise with similar results. That would be the “twice” part, and we’ve been hearing about it ever since. About what you’d except from people who are still going on about how they beat the French at Agincourt in 1415. They also tend to forget that they lost the Hundred Years War.
“Remember that time we were ahead at halftime but lost the game?” — said no football team ever.
Simulated “kills” on an F-106 during Giant Voice 1979. Vulcans were impressive aircraft but hardly invulnerable.
I myself have penetrated US air defenses. We were playing in some exercise on the East Coast.
The defending F-16s went chasing after our wingman while we snuck out over the Atlantic, turned around and “bombed” Savannah. Too bad. I always liked Savannah. No defense is perfect and a well-crewed bomber can be a difficult target.
Not that the RAF and Royal Navy aren’t highly skilled - they are, very much so.
Just don’t try to drink with them. That doesn’t end well. I think I crawled back to my room on my lips that night.
They’re a good bunch mind you, they just like to pretend that they’re the only people that know how to fly a low level.
Post of a picture on an aviation forum of an aircraft doing a low pass and within a nanosecond one of the blokes will be along to remind you that the Blackburn Buccaneer flew lower.
(Not sure why they named a jet after the price of corn by the way.)
Buccaneer doing what it did best. If I was a bloke I’d make some comment about the crew getting a nosebleed at such a high altitude.
And yes, the Buccaneer crews excelled at low level flying, but so did a lot of other people.
F-111s flew low and before that F-105s flew low. I’ve heard stories over the years of US Navy A-6s dragging their tail hooks through the water and Air National Guard A-7s coming back with tree branches stuck to them. Pretty much any aircraft with an “A” (Attack) designation had a low level mission back then because that was your best chance of survival.
Navy A-6 Intruder down in the weeds.
Much as we like to one-up each other on low flying - the lowest pass cannot be beaten, it can only be tied. Also the ground has a kill probability approaching 100 percent. A few people have bounced off it and survived but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Air National Guard KC-135E of all things doing a rather low pass.
We also knew a thing or two about low level flying in SAC. In the late 1980s we were still training to take our B-52G’s into the Soviet Union if the “big one” happened. Going in low, hopefully at night, would have been our best chance of getting to the target.
My EWO took this picture. 50 feet over the Saudi desert at 390 indicated. Late 1990 just prior to the Gulf War kicking off. This was our last-ditch defense in case of a missile attack and I wanted to practice it at least once before the war kicked off.
Now it’s one thing to fly close to the ground in a nimble little attack jet. It’s quite another to do it in a 488,000 pound aircraft that handles like the controls are sunk in concrete and has a wing designed for 50,000 feet. We were in so much ground effect at 100 feet that it was hard to make it go any lower.
Hard to tell just how low he is but I would guess 100 feet or so.
Now just to make it interesting let’s throw in some darkness or bad weather. With the equipment and training we had, we could fly our wingspan off the ground — at night. Let’s see your Buccaneer do that mate.
B-52 “rigging” a ship. These were fun missions.
Messing with the Navy. Looks like the B-52 is down around 50 feet. The nose down attitude was disconcerting at that altitude.
So how does a Vulcan match up with a B-52? Here is my highly biased comparison, because hey, I’m the one writing this. Note that the performance numbers are approximate in case anyone feels the need to nitpick.
| Category |
Vulcan |
B-52 |
Advantage |
| Top speed |
Mach .96 |
Mach .90 |
Vulcan |
| CEILING |
60,000 feet |
50,000 feet |
Vulcan |
| Thrust to weight |
.31 |
.31 (B-52H) |
Tie |
| range (Unrefueled) |
2,265 nm |
10,000 nm (B-52H) |
B-52 |
| payload (Conventional) |
21 x 1000 lb bombs |
51 x 1000 lb bombs |
B-52 |
| payload (nuclear) |
1 free-fall bomb |
4 free-ball bombs plus 12 ALCM |
B-52 |
| radar signature |
Small |
Madison Square Garden |
Vulcan |
| Maneuverability |
Good |
Madison Square Garden |
Vulcan |
| Defensive armament |
None |
4x.50 caliber or 1x20mm cannon |
B-52 |
| was in a james bond movie |
Yes |
No |
Vulcan |
| Combat service |
That one time |
A whole bunch |
B-52 |
| LOOKS |
Awesome |
It’s called “BUFF” for a reason |
Vulcan |
| Length of service |
28 years |
Probably to the end of time |
B-52 |
| Total SCORE |
7 |
7 |
Tie |
I made it a tie because both aircraft have their strengths and weaknesses and I could have gone either way. I’d say the Vulcan had a better chance of reaching its target undetected but the BUFF could do a lot more damage if it got there.
Vulcan cockpit. Cramped even compared to a B-52 and visibility was poor.
Also the B-52 crew had a better chance of at least surviving. Only the pilots had ejection seats in a Vulcan. The other three crewmembers had little chance of getting out.
Three brave souls sat downstairs with only a hatch to jump out of.
The pilots sat upstairs while the Navigators and EWO faced backwards.
The Vulcan’s main claim to fame was its role in Operation Black Buck during the Falklands War. While they did ingress to their targets at low level, they popped up to medium altitude (10,000 — 15,000 feet) to release their weapons. That was either to stay out of range of anti-aircraft guns or because they didn’t have “high drag” bombs that could be dropped from low altitude. Someone here is probably the expert on this and will let me know.
They managed to put a single hole in the runway at Port Stanley and damaged some Argentinian radars with Shrike missiles. These were at the time the longest bombing missions ever flown. How effective they were is up to debate. Some would say this was a bid by the RAF to stay relevant in a time of decreasing budgets. The Falklands War was mostly a Royal Navy affair.
During the first three nights of the Gulf War, B-52s flew multiple low-level strikes against Iraqi targets. I myself piloted one of those sorties but you probably knew that already. Amazingly none of us were shot down although we did have planes come back with holes in them. For some reason this has never been well publicized.
In conclusion, I’d say it’s hard to argue with success. One of these aircraft was retired in 1984 and the other one, well…..
