Between 1948 and 1992, personnel and aircraft of the United States Air Force (USAF)
Strategic Air Command (SAC) were routinely deployed to bases in England. An informal agreement to base SAC bombers in the UK was reached between US
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
Carl Spaatz, and
Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Marshal of the Royal Air Force (MRAF) is the highest rank in the Royal Air Force (RAF). In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), and to retired Chiefs of the Air Staff (CAS), who were ...
(RAF)
Lord Tedder, in July 1946. At that time there were only three bases in the UK deemed suitable for operating
Boeing B-29 Superfortresses:
RAF Lakenheath
Royal Air Force Lakenheath or RAF Lakenheath is a Royal Air Force station near the village of Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, UK, north-east of Mildenhall and west of Thetford. The base also sits close to Brandon.
Despite being an RAF sta ...
,
RAF Marham and
RAF Sculthorpe
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
. These were airbases that had been extended during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
when there were plans to use B-29s against Germany. When the
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, ro ...
began in June 1948, two B-29
groups
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
deployed to the UK, but neither was equipped with
Silverplate
Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop a ...
bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Nuclear-capable
Boeing B-50 Superfortress bombers began deploying in 1949, and nuclear bombs followed in 1950.
The original bases in
East Anglia were considered inadequate for the deployment of the forces called for in the
Offtackle war plan, and there were concerns that they were exposed to a surprise attack from the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
. New bases were developed at
RAF Brize Norton
Royal Air Force Brize Norton or RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, about west north-west of London, is the largest station of the Royal Air Force. It is close to the village of Brize Norton, and the towns of Carterton and Witney.
The statio ...
,
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Upper Heyford was a Royal Air Force station located north-west of Bicester near the village of Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England. In the Second World War the airfield was used by Bomber Command. During the Cold War, Upper Heyford was one ...
,
RAF Fairford
Royal Air Force Fairford or more simply RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Gloucestershire, England which is currently a standby airfield and therefore not in everyday use. Its most prominent use in recent years has been as an ...
and
RAF Greenham Common
Royal Air Force Greenham Common or RAF Greenham Common is a former Royal Air Force station in the civil parishes of Greenham and Thatcham in the English county of Berkshire. The airfield was southeast of Newbury, about west of London.
Opened ...
were therefore developed as bases, which began to be used in 1952. The bases were initially manned by the RAF, were handed over to the USAF in 1951. They continued to be known as RAF stations, and the
Royal Air Force Ensign
The Royal Air Force Ensign is the official flag which is used to represent the Royal Air Force. The ensign has a field of air force blue with the United Kingdom's flag in the canton and the Royal Air Force's roundel in the middle of the fly. ...
was flown alongside the
flag of the United States. The B-29 groups on the UK and the depot at
RAF Burtonwood
Royal Air Force Burtonwood (or RAF Burtonwood) is a former Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces base that was located in Burtonwood, Northwest of Warrington in Cheshire, England. The base was opened in 1940 in response to World Wa ...
were placed under the
3rd Air Division
The 3rd Air Division (3d AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Strategic Air Command, assigned to Fifteenth Air Force, being stationed at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. It was inactivated on 1 April 1992.
...
. It became the
Third Air Force
The Third Air Force (Air Forces Europe) (3 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA). Its headquarters is Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It is responsible for all U.S. air forces in ...
in 1951, and SAC activated the
7th Air Division
The 7th Air Division (7 AD) served the United States Air Force with distinction from early 1944 through early 1992, earning an outstanding unit decoration and a service streamer along the way.
History
Hawaii
As the 7th Fighter Wing, the divis ...
to control SAC forces in the UK.
In 1953 the propeller-driven B-29s and B-50s were replaced with
Boeing B-47 Stratojet
The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...
deployments to English bases. These temporary duty postings (TDY) typically involved an entire
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...
of 45 B-47s, along with 20
Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter
The Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter is a four-engined, piston-powered United States strategic tanker aircraft based on the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. It replaced the KB-29 and was succeeded by the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker.
Design and developm ...
aerial refuelling
Aerial refueling, also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to another (the receiver) while both aircraft a ...
tankers, which were held at readiness at an English base for ninety days. In 1958 TDY postings were replaced by a new system of overseas deployments called Reflex. A permanent SAC presence was established, with a SAC airbase group permanently assigned to each base, and the ninety-day deployments were replaced by twenty-one day deployments of two or three aircraft and crews. These aircraft were kept on full alert status for two weeks, which meant bombers and tankers were on the runway, fuelled and armed with a
Mark 39 nuclear bomb
The Mark 39 nuclear bomb and W39 nuclear warhead were versions of an American thermonuclear weapon, which were in service from 1957 to 1966.
The Mark 39 design was a thermonuclear bomb (see Teller-Ulam design) and had a yield of 3.8 megatons. ...
, and ready to take off at 15 minutes notice. SAC B-47s in the UK were on alert during the
Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the
Cuban Missile Crisis, as were
Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...
missiles manned by RAF units, but with the warheads in the custody of SAC officers who controlled their launch through a
dual key system.
With the introduction of
intercontinental ballistic missiles and long-range
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers, SAC no longer required bases in the UK, and Reflex deployments ceased in 1965, but SAC bombers continued to visit, and the UK was used by the
Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "''Dragon Lady''", is an American single-jet engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day ...
and
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft. SAC
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker and
McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender
The McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender is an American aerial refueling tanker aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). A military version of the three-engine DC-10 airliner, the KC-10 was developed from the Advanced Tanker Cargo A ...
tankers based in the UK supported the abortive 1980
hostage rescue attempt in Iran and the
1986 United States bombing of Libya, and in 1991 joined B-52 bombers temporarily based in the UK to conduct bombing in
Operation Desert Storm
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
in 1991.
Early Cold War Tensions
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
,
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
(USAAF) personnel were deployed to the United Kingdom in large numbers, reaching a peak of over 400,000 in June 1944. Thereafter, numbers had declined to 234,000 in April 1945 as personnel were deployed to the continent. Demobilisation was swift after the war, and by 1947 there were no US bases in the UK, and no numbered air forces deployed in Europe. Nonetheless, the war swept away traditional
American isolationism. Wartime plans called for a worldwide network of 90 bases, but were cut back in 1944 when it was realised that the resources to support them would be lacking. These were intended to contain Germany and Japan, and enforce the peace settlement, not for a war with the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. As early as May 1944, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...
had calculated that the war would leave the Soviet Union as a leading global power, and an assessment of its post-war capabilities was made in October 1945. It was not expected that the Soviet Union would resort to war with the United States, but
war plans were drawn up for the possibility that a one might occur as a result of a miscalculation.
Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began as early as 1946. In June and July, the Chief of the USAAF,
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
Carl Spaatz, met with the
Chief of the Air Staff (CAS),
Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Marshal of the Royal Air Force (MRAF) is the highest rank in the Royal Air Force (RAF). In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), and to retired Chiefs of the Air Staff (CAS), who were ...
Lord Tedder. The two were wartime comrades and had a warm, personal relationship, and held each other in high regard. US war plans for a conflict with the Soviet Union assumed that Western Europe would be overrun, and a fighting withdrawal conducted to the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
. Strategic air operations would be carried out from the UK. Spaatz was interested in acquiring base facilities in the UK for
B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...
bombers armed with
atomic bombs. Tedder, an enthusiastic supporter of close ties between the two countries, agreed to provide them. Spaatz briefed to
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
on his return, and the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...
,
Clement Attlee may have been informed of this informal agreement, but the
Foreign Office and
State Department were not.
![Royal Air Force Operations in the Middle East and North Africa, 1939-1943](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Royal_Air_Force_Operations_in_the_Middle_East_and_North_Africa%2C_1939-1943._CNA181.jpg)
In August 1946,
Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
Elmer E. Kirkpatrick, who had developed of the base facilities on
Tinian
Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the ...
used for the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...
, arrived in the UK to discuss the requirements. The B-29 was a large and underpowered aircraft. It needed a runway at least wide and long, with at least of clearance at both ends, and strong enough to bear the load of a aircraft with a
Fat Man
"Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) is the codename for the type of nuclear bomb the United States detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the fir ...
atomic bomb in the forward bomb bay, which required a concrete slab at least thick. The Fat Man also required special storage facilities and assembly workshops, as the bombs could only be assembled shortly before a mission. This required a specialised
Armed Forces Special Weapons Project
The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) was a United States military agency responsible for those aspects of nuclear weapons remaining under military control after the Manhattan Project was succeeded by the Atomic Energy Commission on ...
(AFSWP) team to be deployed from
Sandia Base
Sandia Base was the principal nuclear weapons installation of the United States Department of Defense from 1946 to 1971. It was located on the southeastern edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico. For 25 years, the top-secret Sandia Base and its subsidi ...
. Since there was insufficient clearance for a Fat Man under a B-29, loading was accomplished by driving the B-29 over a pit.
In 1946, there were three bases in the UK that met these requirements:
RAF Lakenheath
Royal Air Force Lakenheath or RAF Lakenheath is a Royal Air Force station near the village of Lakenheath in Suffolk, England, UK, north-east of Mildenhall and west of Thetford. The base also sits close to Brandon.
Despite being an RAF sta ...
,
RAF Marham and
RAF Sculthorpe
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
, which had been extended to a width of and length of when there were still plans to use B-29s against Germany. Early plans to deploy 24
groups
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
of B-29 and
Consolidated B-32 Dominator
The Consolidated B-32 Dominator (Consolidated Model 34) was an American heavy strategic bomber built for United States Army Air Forces during World War II, which had the distinction of being the last Allied aircraft to be engaged in combat duri ...
bombers in the UK were abandoned by 1944, and no B-29 operations were conducted from the UK during the war, although a lone
YB-29, ''Hobo Queen'' (41-36963) was deployed to the UK on 6 March 1944. It tested US and British airbases for suitability with the B-29, and was shown off to distinguished visitors, including Tedder and Spaatz, before continuing on to India on 1 April. After the war three B-29s were stationed at
RAF Mildenhall
Royal Air Force Mildenhall or RAF Mildenhall is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located near Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as a Royal Air Force station, it primarily supports United States Air Force (USAF) operations, ...
from March to October 1946 as part of Project Ruby, an evaluation of whether the B-29 could be modified to use the British
Tallboy and
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
bombs.
A survey of 105 airfields in the UK found another 23 suitable to be extended for use with the B-29. A meeting chaired by
Air Vice-Marshal
Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...
John Whitworth-Jones
Air Chief Marshal Sir John Whitworth-Jones, (28 February 1896 – 4 February 1981) was a pilot in the First World War and a senior Royal Air Force commander during the Second World War. After the latter he held several senior RAF appointments be ...
was held at the
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...
on 26 August to discuss the required works. In attendance was Sir
Ernest Holloway, the Air Ministry's Director General of Works, who had directed the construction of airfields for the USAAF during the war. Works at Lakenheath and Sculthorpe involved the construction of pits near the
hardstand
A hardstand (also hard standing and hardstanding in British English) is a paved or hard-surfaced area on which vehicles, such as cars or aircraft, may be parked. The term may also be used informally to refer to an area of compacted hard surface suc ...
s, and the erection of additional buildings. The work was costed at £12,350 for each base, and were authorised on Holloway's personal authority. Hydraulic lift equipment for the loading pits arrived from
Kirtland Army Air Field in September.
Two incidents in August 1946, in which one USAAF
C-47 transport aircraft was forced down over
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, and another was shot down ten days later, prompted Truman to order the
Strategic Air Command (SAC) to stage a show of force as a warning to the Soviet Union to keep its client states under control. In November, six B-29s bombers from SAC's
43rd Bombardment Group
The 43rd Air Mobility Operations Group is an active duty air mobility unit at Pope Field (formerly Pope AFB), Fort Bragg, North Carolina and is part of the Air Mobility Command (AMC) under the USAF Expeditionary Center. The unit is composed of f ...
were deployed to
Rhein-Main Air Base
Rhein-Main Air Base (located at ) was a United States Air Force air base near the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was a Military Airlift Command (MAC) and United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) installation, occupying the south side ...
in Germany, and for nearly two weeks they flew along the borders of Soviet-occupied territories and paid visits to bases of friendly countries, including the UK, thereby evaluating their suitability for future use. None of them were
Silverplate
Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop a ...
bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons; the US had only 17 of these at the time, all of which were assigned to the
509th Bombardment Group
5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...
at
Roswell Army Airfield in
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
.
The US
National Security Act of 1947 established the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
(USAF) as an independent service, and SAC, which was formed as part of the USAAF in March 1946, was transferred to the USAF when the latter was formed in September 1947. SAC B-29s began deploying squadrons to Europe on a regular basis in 1947, and during that year, ten aircraft of the
340th Bombardment Squadron
34 may refer to:
* 34 (number), the natural number following 33 and preceding 35
* one of the years 34 BC, AD 34, 1934, 2034
* ''34'' (album), a 2015 album by Dre Murray
* "#34" (song), a 1994 song by Dave Matthews Band
* "34", a 2006 song by Sa ...
,
97th Bombardment Group deployed from
Smoky Hill Air Force Base
Salina Regional Airport , formerly Salina Municipal Airport, is three miles southwest of Salina, Kansas, United States. The airport is owned by the Salina Airport Authority. It is used for general aviation, with service by one passenger airline, ...
to
Giebelstadt Army Airfield in Germany, for a thirty-day training/goodwill tour. Nine of them visited RAF Marham in a goodwill visit, where they were greeted by Lord Tedder and
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...
Clayton Bissell, the US air
attaché
In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accord ...
in the UK. Three of the bombers had been modified to carry Tallboys, which entered US service as the
M-121. This revealed that despite the work carried out thus far, the air bases in the UK were ill-prepared to conduct B-29 operations.
B-29 deployments
Berlin Blockade
When the
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, ro ...
began in June 1948, one B-29 squadron, the
353d Bombardment Squadron from the
301st Bombardment Group
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
, was temporarily stationed at
Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base
Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base (German: "Fliegerhorst Fürstenfeldbruck" or "Flugplatz Fürstenfeldbruck") is a former German Air Force airfield near the town of Fürstenfeldbruck in Bavaria, near Munich, Germany.
Fürstenfeldbruck became famous firs ...
in Germany. The group's other two squadrons deployed to Germany in July. The
Foreign Secretary,
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–194 ...
asked Truman to send bombers to the UK to beef up the defences. In response, the
28th Bombardment Group from
Rapid City Air Force Base
Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force base located about northeast of Rapid City, South Dakota, just north of the town of Box Elder.
The host unit at Ellsworth is the 28th Bomb Wing (28 BW). Assigned to the Global Strike ...
in
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...
deployed to
RAF Scampton
Royal Air Force Scampton or RAF Scampton is a Royal Air Force station located adjacent to the A15 road near to the village of Scampton, Lincolnshire, and north-west of the city of Lincoln, England.
RAF Scampton stands on the site of a Firs ...
in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
, and the
307th Bombardment Group
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
from
MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base (MacDill AFB) is an active United States Air Force installation located 4 miles (6.4 km) south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida.
The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW), assig ...
in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
deployed to RAF Marham and
RAF Waddington
Royal Air Force Waddington otherwise known as RAF Waddington is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located beside the village of Waddington, south of Lincoln, Lincolnshire in England.
The station is the RAF's Intelligence Surveillance Target ...
in Lincolnshire. Each group had three squadrons of ten B-29s. The first B-29 touched down on 17 July, piloted by Colonel
John B. Henry Jr., the commander of the 28th Bombardment Group, who was greeted by Air Vice-Marshal
Charles Guest
Air Marshal Sir Charles Edward Neville Guest, (4 October 1900 – 23 June 1977) was a Royal Air Force officer who became Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at RAF Transport Command from 1952 to 1954.
RAF Career
Educated at King Edward's School, Bi ...
, the Air Officer Commanding
No. 1 Group RAF. The RAF granted permission, on the usual informal basis, for the USAF to reopen the wartime USAAF depot at
RAF Burtonwood
Royal Air Force Burtonwood (or RAF Burtonwood) is a former Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces base that was located in Burtonwood, Northwest of Warrington in Cheshire, England. The base was opened in 1940 in response to World Wa ...
, and soon 2,500 USAF personnel were stationed there.
![B-29-scampton-1948](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/B-29-scampton-1948.jpg)
The presence of B-29s in the prompted members of the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
, notably
John Platts-Mills, to ask the
Secretary of State for Air,
Sir Arthur Henderson to press for details regarding the nature and duration of their deployment. Henderson replied in a written statement that the two groups were in the UK on temporary duty, and noted that "Units of the USAF do not visit this country under a formal treaty but under informal and long-standing arrangements between USAF and RAF for visits of goodwill and training purposes." Neither of the two groups deployed to the UK, nor the 301st Bombardment Group in Germany, was equipped with the Silverplate/Saddletree B-29s capable of carrying atomic bombs. Nor was the
2nd Bombardment Group, which arrived in August. Some confusion was caused by the arrival of "Colonel Tibbets", but this was Colonel
Kingston E. Tibbets, the SAC deputy chief of staff for Materiel, and not Colonel
Paul W. Tibbets of Hiroshima fame.
The B-29 groups in the UK and the depot at RAF Burtonwood were placed under the newly formed B-29 Task Force at RAF Marham on 2 July. On 16 July, this became the
3rd Air Division
The 3rd Air Division (3d AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Strategic Air Command, assigned to Fifteenth Air Force, being stationed at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. It was inactivated on 1 April 1992.
...
(Provisional), under the command of Colonel
Stanley T. Wray. Major General
Leon W. Johnson assumed command on 23 August. He moved his headquarters to
Bushy Park
Bushy Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is the second largest of London's Royal Parks, at in area, after Richmond Park. The park, most of which is open to the public, is immediately north of Hampton Court Palace and Hampton ...
on 8 September, and then to Victoria Park Estate (later, USAF Station) at
RAF South Ruislip
RAF South Ruislip, also known as South Ruislip Air Station, was a non-flying Air Force station located in South Ruislip near London, England. Located close to RAF Northolt, the station was used by the United States Air Force's Third Air Force f ...
on 15 April 1949.
The B-29s deployed during the Berlin Blockade conducted intensive training.
Shell-Mex & BP
Shell-Mex and BP Ltd was a British joint venture between petroleum companies Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) and BP. It was formed in 1932 when both companies decided to merge their United Kingdom marketing operations,Reference and contact details: GB ...
gave the USAF access to of aviation spirit in the UK to supply the US forces there. This enabled tankers already at sea to divert to
Bremen to supply the airlift. An order for was placed for of and bombs with the
British Joint Staff Mission
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
British bombs could be used as the shackle fittings were interchangeable. This was soon superseded by an order for of bombs, and seven million rounds of ammunition. Four million rounds of ammunition was brought in from Germany. At least one B-29 shot itself down during live firing practice.
Base development
The bases in the UK were still considered inadequate for the deployment of three groups, much less the six called for in the
Offtackle war plan. In particular, there were concerns about and the lack of dispersed hardstands, and the location of the bases in
East Anglia, which SAC felt were exposed to a surprise attack from the North Sea. It wanted bases further west, where they would be batter protected by the existing radar and fighter defences. The Air Ministry and the 3rd Air Division conducted a search for available sites, and identified
RAF Brize Norton
Royal Air Force Brize Norton or RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, about west north-west of London, is the largest station of the Royal Air Force. It is close to the village of Brize Norton, and the towns of Carterton and Witney.
The statio ...
and
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Upper Heyford was a Royal Air Force station located north-west of Bicester near the village of Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England. In the Second World War the airfield was used by Bomber Command. During the Cold War, Upper Heyford was one ...
in
Oxfordshire,
RAF Fairford
Royal Air Force Fairford or more simply RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Gloucestershire, England which is currently a standby airfield and therefore not in everyday use. Its most prominent use in recent years has been as an ...
in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, and
RAF Greenham Common
Royal Air Force Greenham Common or RAF Greenham Common is a former Royal Air Force station in the civil parishes of Greenham and Thatcham in the English county of Berkshire. The airfield was southeast of Newbury, about west of London.
Opened ...
in
Berkshire as suitable. Moreover, the RAF now wanted the existing bases back, as it needed bases for its own eight squadrons of B-29s, the first of which was delivered in March 1950, and was known in British service as the
Washington B.1. SAC therefore relinquished RAF Marham back to RAF control.
![307th Bombardment Group Boeing B-29A-75-BN Superfortress 44-62328 1948](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/307th_Bombardment_Group_Boeing_B-29A-75-BN_Superfortress_44-62328_1948.jpg)
The Air Ministry estimated the cost of construction at the four airbases at £7.717 million (equivalent to £ in ), and asked for £1.8 million in the budget for
fiscal
Fiscal usually refers to government finance. In this context, it may refer to:
Economics
* Fiscal policy, use of government expenditure to influence economic development
* Fiscal policy debate
* Fiscal adjustment, a reduction in the government ...
year 1950.
HM Treasury
His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ...
refused to even consider this request without a formal arrangement in place between the two governments. It soon became clear that the UK government felt that Britain's adverse financial situation did not permit more than the allocation of the land and a token contribution to the construction costs. The
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
The United States ambassador to the United Kingdom (known formally as the ambassador of the United States to the Court of St James's) is the official representative of the president of the United States and the American government to the monarc ...
,
Lewis Douglas
Lewis Williams Douglas (July 2, 1894March 7, 1974) was an American politician, diplomat, businessman and academic.
Early life and education
Douglas was the son of James Douglas, Jr., a mining executive employed by the Phelps Dodge Company, and h ...
, and
Aidan Crawley
Aidan Merivale Crawley (10 April 1908 – 3 November 1993) was a British journalist, television executive and editor, and politician. He was a member of both of Britain's major political parties: the Labour Party and Conservative Party, and wa ...
, the
Under-Secretary of State for Air
The Under-Secretary of State for Air was a junior ministerial post in the United Kingdom Government, supporting the Secretary of State for Air in his role of managing the Royal Air Force. It was established on 10 January 1919, replacing the previou ...
, reached an agreement in March and April 1950. The planned number of aircraft to be deployed rose inexorably, to 670 in peace and 1,800 in war, and by April 1952, the projected cost had risen from £35 million to over £70 million (equivalent to £ in ), and the British government sought to limit its contribution to £17.5 million (equivalent to £ in ). In September 1953, the Secretary of State for Air,
Lord De L'Isle, and the US Ambassador,
Winthrop W. Aldrich
Winthrop Williams Aldrich GBE (November 2, 1885February 25, 1974) was an American banker and financier, scion of a prominent and powerful political family, and US Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Early years
Aldrich was born in Rhode Islan ...
, agreed that the US would pay all the costs of construction beyond the four original bases.
To make the bases capable of handling the larger
Convair B-36 Peacemaker
The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" is a strategic bomber that was built by Convair and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced Reciprocating engine, piston-engined aircraft ever built. It ...
and
Boeing B-47 Stratojet
The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...
, then under development, the runways at Upper Heyford and Greenham Common were extended to by building on the overshoot areas, thereby minimising the loss of agricultural land but eroding the safety margin. In addition to extending the runways, infrastructure added included control towers, communications, runway lights, radio beacons, and
ground-controlled approach (GCA) equipment. Works were carried out by both the
and British firms. The different voltage used by the mains electricity supply in the UK meant that all equipment brought from the US required large transformers. Cold weather hampered construction, as did interruptions to the electricity supply caused by a national coal shortage. There were also shortages of aviation spirit due to inefficient deliveries. Personnel found the accommodation provided austere, with no hot water, only pot bellied stoves for heat, dim light bulbs, and few or no recreational facilities.
B-50 deployments
Nuclear weapons
In February 1949, the
92nd Bombardment Group deployed to RAF Sculthorpe, becoming the first B-29 group to use that base, and the 307th Bombardment Group deployed to RAF Lakenheath and RAF Marham. In May, the 509th Bombardment Group arrived in the UK, with two squadrons based at RAF Marham and one at RAF Lakenheath. This was the first deployment to the UK of B-29s capable of carrying nuclear weapons. It was replaced in August by the USAF's other nuclear-capable group, the 43rd Bombardment Group, which deployed to RAF Sculthorpe, Lakenheath and Marham. In June 1948 it had become the first group to equip with the
Boeing B-50 Superfortress, a post-World War II revision of the B-29 with new, more powerful
Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major
The Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major is an American 28-cylinder four-row radial piston aircraft engine designed and built during World War II. First run in 1944, at , it is the largest-displacement aviation piston engine to be mass-produced in ...
engines, taller vertical stabiliser, hydraulic rudder boost, nose wheel steering, and other improvements. Nonetheless, it looked obsolescent – a piston-engine bomber in the
jet age
The Jet Age is a period in the history of aviation defined by the advent of aircraft powered by jet turbine engines, and by the social change this brought about.
Jet airliners were able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older pisto ...
. Neither group deployed with nuclear weapons, but they practised atomic missions using M-107
Pumpkin bomb
Pumpkin bombs were conventional aerial bombs developed by the Manhattan Project and used by the United States Army Air Forces against Japan during World War II. It was a close replication of the Fat Man plutonium bomb with the same ballistic an ...
s, which had the same ballistic characteristics as Fat Man bombs. Loading pits were only dug at Sculthorpe and Lakenheath; the technique was discarded in favour of jacking up the front of the aircraft height enough to allow the
dolly with the bomb to be placed under the bomb bay.
![B-50-93dbg-1950](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/B-50-93dbg-1950.jpg)
On 3 September 1949, a WB-29 over the north Pacific Ocean detected a large radiation cloud. Analysis showed that this cloud was from an atomic explosion on the Asian mainland sometime between 26 and 29 August. The Soviet Union had an atomic bomb earlier than the US expected it. The Cold War heated up with the outbreak of the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
in June 1950. There were fears—albeit without any evidence—that the war in Korea was a diversion for a Soviet attack in Europe. At the time there was only one group in the UK, the 301st Bombardment Group, which had arrived in May, and it was equipped only with conventional B-29s. Its deployment was the first time that a full group complement of 45 bombers had deployed. In response to the Korean War situation, two nuclear-capable B-50 groups, the
93rd and 97th Bombardment Groups, deployed to the UK in July. They brought
Mark 4 nuclear bomb
The Mark 4 nuclear bomb was an American implosion-type nuclear bomb based on the earlier Mark 3 Fat Man design, used in the Trinity test and the bombing of Nagasaki. With the Mark 3 needing each individual component to be hand-assembled by only h ...
s, an improved version of the wartime Fat Man with them, but without the active
cores. The commander of SAC,
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
Curtis Le May
Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was an American Air Force general who implemented a controversial strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific theater of World War II. He later served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air ...
ordered that personnel be equipped with sidearms in case of sabotage or armed intervention by local Communists.
An act of sabotage did occur. On 23 July 1950, four B-29s of the 301st Bombardment Group at RAF Lakenheath were damaged by their British Army guards, who damaged plexiglas panels and wing flaps, and punctured the tyres with their bayonets. Three soldiers were arraigned before secret courts martial. Johnson reported to Le May that the men were draftees who were resentful at being ordered overseas, and that they did not appear to be Communists. Two were found guilty of
malicious damage, and sentenced to terms of imprisonment and discharge with ignominy. The British Army guards were replaced by US airmen, but the commander of the 301st Bombardment Group, Colonel
Thomas W. Steed, protested that their use as airbase guards hampered his group's training and effectiveness. The 3rd Air Division instituted more security measures, including fencing, guard dogs and restrictions on civilian access. Agriculture continued at RAF Lakenheath, which necessitated public access roads.
Command arrangements
![Boeing B-50D 7101 43BW 15AF YEA 25](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Boeing_B-50D_7101_43BW_15AF_YEA_25.05.53_edited-2.jpg)
SAC units remained under Johnson's command, and he was the main point of contact between the USAF and the British government. He was not answerable to Le May, but to General
Lauris Norstad
Lauris Norstad (March 24, 1907 – September 12, 1988) was an American General officer, general officer in the United States Army and United States Air Force.
Early life and military career
Lauris Norstad was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Minn ...
, the Commander in Chief of
United States Air Forces in Europe
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
(USAFE). SAC activated the
7th Air Division
The 7th Air Division (7 AD) served the United States Air Force with distinction from early 1944 through early 1992, earning an outstanding unit decoration and a service streamer along the way.
History
Hawaii
As the 7th Fighter Wing, the divis ...
at RAF South Ruislip on 20 March 1951. A command staff was assembled at
Offutt Air Force Base in
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
under Brigadier General Paul T. Cullen, but the aircraft carrying Cullen and his staff to the UK
caught fire and was forced to ditch into the Atlantic. There were no survivors. Major General
Archie J. Old, the designated commander of the
5th Air Division
The 5th Air Division (5th AD) is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Strategic Air Command, based at Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco. It was inactivated on 15 July 1958.
The unit's origins begin with its predec ...
in
French Morocco assumed temporary command of the 7th Air Division until Major General
John P. McConnell, Johnson's deputy, took over on 24 May, and Old moved on to Morocco.
7th Air Division headquarters was located at RAF South Ruislip until 1 July 1958, when it moved to
RAF High Wycombe
RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s ...
.
The 3rd Air Division became the
Third Air Force
The Third Air Force (Air Forces Europe) (3 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA). Its headquarters is Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It is responsible for all U.S. air forces in ...
on 1 May 1951, with Johnson still in command, until he was succeeded by Major General
Francis H. Griswold on 6 May 1952. Griswold became deputy commander of SAC and in turn was succeeded by Major General
Roscoe C. Wilson, a former commander of the AFSWP, on 30 April 1954. Third Air Force personnel were stationed in the UK on long-term tours of duty, normally three years, and therefore could bring their families with them, whereas the 7th Air Division personnel were deployed for ninety day rotations, and could not. On 16 May 1951, the Third Air Force transferred jurisdiction over RAF Bassingbourn, RAF Lakenheath,
RAF Lindholme
Royal Air Force Station Lindholme or more simply RAF Lindholme is a former Royal Air Force station in South Yorkshire, England. It was located south of Thorne and north east of Doncaster and was initially called RAF Hatfield Woodhouse.
Ea ...
,
RAF Manston
Royal Air Force Manston or more simply RAF Manston is a former Royal Air Force station located in the north-east of Kent, at on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996. The site was split between a commercial airport Kent International Airpo ...
, RAF Marham, RAF Mildenheall, RAF Sculthorpe,
RAF West Drayton
RAF West Drayton was a non-flying Royal Air Force station in West Drayton, within the London Borough of Hillingdon, which served as the main centre for military air traffic control in the United Kingdom. It was co-located with the civilian Lond ...
and RAF Waddington to the 7th Air Division. Six more air bases, RAF Upper Heyford, RAF Brize Norton, RAF Fairford, RAF Greenham Common, RAF Woodbridge and RAF Carnaley, were transferred as they became available.
The bases used by the USAF were initially manned by the RAF, but by the early 1950s it was facing severe financial and personnel shortages.
Air Chief Marshal Sir
George Pirie approached Johnson asking if the USAF could take over manning of the bases, thereby saving the RAF 1,000 personnel. Johnson agreed to do so, and in 1951 seven stations were handed over to the USAF. The bases continued to be known as RAF stations, and the senior RAF officer present was known as the "RAF commander and senior liaison officer". While the title to the land remained with the Air Ministry, the USAF had unlimited tenure so long as its presence was desirable. Johnson's deft touch in dealing with the British was perhaps exemplified by his order that the
Royal Air Force Ensign
The Royal Air Force Ensign is the official flag which is used to represent the Royal Air Force. The ensign has a field of air force blue with the United Kingdom's flag in the canton and the Royal Air Force's roundel in the middle of the fly. ...
be flown over the US bases in the UK alongside the
flag of the United States.
Aerial refuelling and reconnaissance
![KB-29P trailing refueling boom](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/KB-29P_trailing_refueling_boom.jpg)
Neither the B-29 nor the B-50 had the range to reach distant targets in the Soviet Union, so
aerial refuelling
Aerial refueling, also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to another (the receiver) while both aircraft a ...
techniques were developed. In 1948, 92 B-29s were converted to
KB-29M tankers, and 74 B-29s, 57 B-50As and 44 TB-50Bs were modified to receive fuel from tankers. The first tanker units, the
43rd and the
509th Air Refueling Squadron, were formed in 1948, and in May 1949 eleven KB-29Ms of the 509th Air Refueling Squadron were the first to deploy to the UK. They were replaced by tankers of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron in August and September. In May 1950, the
301st Air Refueling Squadron
The 301st Air Refueling Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force (USAF) unit. It was last assigned to the 301st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air Force Base, Ohio, where it was inactivated on 31 December 1975. In 1985 the 301st was c ...
became the first tanker squadron to deploy all sixteen of its aircraft.
SAC developed a new method of refuelling, the flying boom, and 116 B-29s were converted to the KB-29P configuration that employed it. A pair of KB-29Ps from the
93rd Air Refueling Squadron deployed to the UK in June 1951. Although SAC continued to use the KB-29P until 1957, the last KB-29P deployment to the UK was of the
2nd Air Refueling Squadron
The 2nd Air Refueling Squadron, sometimes written as 2d Air Refueling Squadron, is a unit of the United States Air Force. It is part of the 305th Air Mobility Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. The 2nd Air Refueling Squadron ...
, which was at RAF Lakenheath from September to December 1952. The final KB-29M deployment was of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron, which deployed to RAF Lakenheath from March to June 1953. The KB-29Ms were scrapped soon after.
Four SAC RB-29As of the
16th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron
HV-016 is a former military unit of Norway, that was a part of the Home Guard. It was established after 1985 to "stop terror- or sabotage actions that could weaken or paralyze Norway's ability to mobilize its military and its ability to resist".
...
visited RAF Scampton in October and November 1948. One
crashed at Bleaklow in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
, killing all 13 on board. Twelve RB-29As of the
23rd Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron
The 23rd Bomb Squadron is a United States Air Force unit, assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing. It is stationed at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. The mission of the squadron is to fly the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber. The men a ...
deployed to RAF Sculthorpe from December 1949 to March 1950. The next deployment was the
72d Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron
7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube.
As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...
, which arrived there in May 1950. In response to the outbreak of the Korean War, it conducted a search for indications of an imminent Soviet attack on Western Europe, but found none. Two of the aircraft were lost in crashes.
The
301st Bombardment Wing, which deployed to RAF Brize Norton and RAF Upper Heyford from December 1952 to March 1953, was the final B-29 deployment to the UK, and the first SAC deployment to the new bases. They were replaced by the B-50As of the
43rd Bombardment Wing. Its departure in June marked the final deployment of that aircraft as well.
B-36 deployments
![7bw-b36-028](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/7bw-b36-028.jpg)
The Convair B-36 Peacemaker had its origins in wartime plans to bomb
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
from the US in the event that the UK was overrun. This did not occur, and the project was given a low priority for scarce resources. It was revived when it was feared that China might collapse, leaving no airfields within B-29 range of Japan. This was overcome by the
capture of the Mariana Islands, and the project lost priority again, but it was revived after the war to fill the need for an intercontinental bomber for the atomic mission. It was not intended that B-36s would be based in the UK, although they might have to land there after returning from a combat mission. The first B-36s to visit to England were six B-36Ds of the
7th and
11th Bombardment Group
An international call prefix, international dial-out code or international direct dial code (IDD code) is a trunk prefix that indicates an international phone call. In the dialling sequence, the prefix precedes the country calling code (and, fur ...
s which arrived at RAF Lakenheath on 16 January 1951, along with three C-124s carrying spare parts and 195 support personnel. Another six B-36Ds had set out from
Carswell Air Force Base
Carswell Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force (USAF) base, located northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. For most of its operational lifetime, the base's mission was to train and support heavy strategic bombing groups and wings.
Carswe ...
in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
but had been forced to return due to bad weather.
Over the next six years, B-36s made several visits to the UK for short periods of time. On 7 February 1953, dense fog and inadequate GCA at RAF Fairford caused the crew of a B-36H from the
7th Bombardment Wing
The 7th Bomb Wing (7 BW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Global Strike Command Eighth Air Force. It is stationed at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, where it is also the host unit.
The 7 BW is one of only two B-1B Lancer strateg ...
that was low on fuel and had failed at two landing attempts to bail out. The aircraft flew on for another before crashing into a cow paddock in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
. All 14 crewmen survived. The
42nd Bombardment Wing
"The Skies for Us"
, colors =
, march =
, mascot =
, battles = Southwest Pacific Theater, First Gulf War
, anniversaries =
, de ...
visited RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Burtonwood between 15 and 23 September 1954, and nineteen of its B-36Ds, B-36Hs and B-36Js deployed to RAF Upper Heyford in September and October 1955. Sixteen B-36s visited RAF Burtonwood in 1956, while RAF Brize Norton also played host to some. On 18 October 1956, shortly before the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
and the
Suez Crisis, sixteen B-36H and B-36Js of the
11th Bombardment Wing deployed to RAF Burtonwood for a week. This was the final B-36 deployment.
B-47 deployments
Wing deployments
The B-47 jet bomber had been under development since 1944, and in the stringent financial situation of the early post-war years the USAF decided to prioritise development of the B-47 rather than purchase more B-50s. Experience in the Korean War amply demonstrated what the SAC planners had long suspected: that propeller-driven bombers were no match for Soviet jet fighters, even at night, and the B-29, B36 and B-50 bomber force was fast losing credibility as a deterrent. Rushing the B-47 into service entailed a series of costly and extensive modifications, and the aircraft had a frightful safety record; over its lifetime there were 203 crashes, representing a loss rate of around 10 percent, resulting in 242 fatalities. In May 1952, in preparation for the arrival of B-47s in the UK, SAC ruled that all runways had to be at least long to permit operations in the heat of the English summer. This entailed the acquisition of private land and re-routing of roads. In the face of strong opposition from local residents, SAC backed down, and acquiesced to runways with overruns, and B-47 operations would cease when it became too hot. As it was, only RAF Fairford and RAF Greenham Common had runways, although RAF Bruntingthorpe and RAF Chelveston could be extended. RAF Brize Norton had a runway but no overruns, RAF Upper Heyford was limited to with no overruns, and RAF Sculthorpe, RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall could not be extended to more than .
![B-47-reflex](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/B-47-reflex.jpg)
In 1953 the 7th Air Division began a system of B-47 Stratojet deployments to English bases. These temporary duty postings (TDY) generally involved an entire
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...
of 45 B-47s, together with approximately 20
Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter
The Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter is a four-engined, piston-powered United States strategic tanker aircraft based on the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. It replaced the KB-29 and was succeeded by the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker.
Design and developm ...
tankers, being held at readiness at an English base for ninety days. At the end of the TDY period they were relieved by another wing that was, generally, stationed at a different airfield. With a range of , they relied on tankers, but a fully-loaded KC-97 could not fly faster than the stall speed of the B-47, so refuelling was done in a dive. The first B-47s to visit the UK arrived on 7 April 1953, when the two aircraft of the
306th Bombardment Wing landed at RAF Fairford after flying non-stop from
Limestone Air Force Base
Loring Air Force Base was a United States Air Force installation in northeastern Maine, near Limestone, Maine, Limestone and Caribou, Maine, Caribou in Aroostook County, Maine, Aroostook County. It was one of the largest bases of the U.S. Air Fo ...
in
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
. After a short visit, they returned to MacDill Air Force Base. The 306th Bomb Wing was the first SAC unit to equip with the B-47B and was the first unit to deploy to the UK for a ninety-day tour of duty. The Wing arrived at RAF Fairford on 4 June 1953 accompanied by 14 aircraft. A further fifteen B-47s followed over the next three days, bringing the Wing up to its full strength of 45 aircraft. One B-47 crashed at RAF Upper Heyford on 2 July. The wing returned to the US in September 1953.
The
305th Bombardment Wing
The 305th Air Mobility Wing is a United States Air Force strategic airlift and air refueling wing under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command. It generates, mobilizes and deploys C-17 Globemaster III and KC-10 Extender aircraft. T ...
was the next Stratojet unit to deploy. The wing arrived at RAF Brize Norton in September 1953 and returned to the US in December 1953. The wing was accompanied during its deployment by KC-97 tankers, which deployed to RAF Mildenhall during the wing's ninety day tour of duty, and carried out air-to-air refuelling of the B-47s both on the trip to England and on their return to the States. The refuelling squadrons were normally assigned to a particular bomb wing for the entire period of their deployment. The
22nd Bombardment Wing followed. Its first fifteen B-47s departed
March Air Force Base
March Air Reserve Base (March ARB), previously known as March Air Force Base (March AFB) is located in Riverside County, California between the cities of Riverside, Moreno Valley, and Perris. It is the home to the Air Force Reserve Command's ...
in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
on 3 December, but on arrival at Limestone Air Force Base they found that RAF Upper Heyford was fogbound. They remained there until 11 December, when eight flew on to the UK. Five managed to land at RAF Upper Heyford. The other three had to divert to RAF Mildenhall or RAF Brize Norton. That day the remaining 30 aircraft arrived at Limestone, where they were again delayed by fog at RAF Upper Heyford. Twenty of the 37 aircraft prepared to fly to the UK on 19 December, but suffered icing, and the lone de-icing truck was able to de-ice only five in time. On 21 December, 20 B-47s set out for the UK, leaving 32 at Limestone with mechanical problems. The last aircraft reached RAF Heyford on 25 December, having taken over three weeks to get there. The return trip in March 1954 was much less eventful.
When the
303rd Bombardment Wing deployed to RAF Greenham Common in March 1954, the runway failed, forcing the group to relocate to RAF Fairford. RAF Mildenhall was also closed for repairs until June 1956. In October 1955, SAC identified main bases from which B-47s would launch attacks, post-strike bases to which they would return to re-arm and re-fuel, and emergency bases, to be used in case other bases were unavailable. The designated main bases were RAF Brize Norton, RAF Greenham Common, RAF Lakenheath and RAF Upper Heyford; the post-strike bases were
RAF Chelveston
Royal Air Force Chelveston, or more simply RAF Chelveston, is a former Royal Air Force station located on the south side of the B645 (former A45 road), east of Wellingborough, near the village of Chelveston in Northamptonshire, England. Duri ...
, RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall; and the emergency bases were RAF Homewood Park (
Heathrow Airport), RAF Lindholme and
RAF Full Sutton
Royal Air Force Full Sutton or RAF Full Sutton is a former Royal Air Force station located south east of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire and north west of Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The base did not open until M ...
. Each main and post-strike base would be visited by B-47 wings at least twice each year.
Reflex deployments
![RAF Bruntingthorpe - Boeing B47 parked](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/RAF_Bruntingthorpe_-_Boeing_B47_parked.jpg)
In 1958 TDY postings were replaced by a new system of overseas deployments called Reflex. A permanent SAC presence was established, with a SAC airbase group permanently assigned to each base: the 3909th at RAF Greenham Common, 3910th at RAF Lakenheath, 3911th at RAF Sculthorpe, 3912th at RAF Bruntingthorpe, 3913th at RAF Mildenhall, 3914th at RAF Chelveston, 3915th at RAF Marham, 3916th at RAF Lindholme, 3917th at RAF Manston,
3918th at RAF Upper Heyford, 3919th at RAF Fairford, and
3920th at RAF Brize Norton. Ninety-day deployments of entire wings were replaced by twenty-one-day deployments of two or three aircraft and crews that were kept on full alert status for two weeks, which meant bombers and tankers were on the runway, fuelled and armed with a
Mark 39 nuclear bomb
The Mark 39 nuclear bomb and W39 nuclear warhead were versions of an American thermonuclear weapon, which were in service from 1957 to 1966.
The Mark 39 design was a thermonuclear bomb (see Teller-Ulam design) and had a yield of 3.8 megatons. ...
, and ready to take off at 15 minutes' notice. In addition to improving SAC's alert posture, Reflex resulted in considerable savings. The 1956 deployment of the 307th Bombardment Wing involved moving 1,600 personnel and 190 tons of cargo at a cost of $42,428,000 (equivalent to $ in ). Reflex deployments reduced the cost by about 40 percent. The last ninety-day rotation was of the
100th Bombardment Wing
The 100th Air Refueling Wing (100th ARW), nicknamed ''the Bloody Hundredth'', is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Third Air Force, United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa. It is stationed at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk ...
at RAF Brize Norton between December 1957 and April 1958.
In July 1959,
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Charles de Gaulle ordered all nuclear-capable US aircraft to leave France, and USAFE units based there had to relocate to
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
or the UK. SAC therefore handed RAF Bruntingthorpe, RAF Chelveston, RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall over to USAFE. Looking forward to 1965–1970, SAC planners believed that keeping the B-47 viable would require considerable amount of upgrades, including the installation of
electronic countermeasures,
air-to-surface missiles, and improved radar and terrain avoidance systems to permit operations at low level. Funds for such upgrades was scarce, and the cost-benefit was questionable. The
Kennedy administration
John F. Kennedy's tenure as the 35th president of the United States, began with his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with his assassination on November 22, 1963. A Democrat from Massachusetts, he took office following the 1960 ...
was also concerned at the drain on US
gold reserves
A gold reserve is the gold held by a national central bank, intended mainly as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders (e.g. paper money), or trading peers, during the eras of the gold standard, and also as a store of ...
caused by payments to foreign countries in exchange for basing rights. It was therefore decided that the B-47 would be phased out. The British government saw things differently; the USAF presence in the UK was estimated to be worth £55 million (equivalent to £ in ) to the British economy.
The retirement of the B-47s was halted by the
Berlin Crisis of 1961, when 48 B-47 bombers and 20 EB-47 electronic warfare stood alert in the UK, and the
Cuban Missile Crisis the following year, which saw 56 B-47s and 22 EB-47s on alert in the UK, but it was only a temporary reprieve. Reflex was terminated at RAF Fairford and RAF Greenham Common on 1 July 1964, and the two bases reverted to RAF control. In April 1965, Reflex ceased at RAF Brize Norton, which reverted to the RAF, and RAF Upper Heyford, which was transferred to the USAFE. The 7th Air Division was inactivated on 30 June 1965.
Reconnaissance deployments
Besides B-47 bombers, English bases also played host to RB-47s, and EB-47s reconnaissance aircraft. During the 1950s and 1960s, aircraft became reliant on radars to track and intercept bombers. Penetrating these defences required knowledge of them, and
electronic intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...
(ELINT) and
communications intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is list of intelligence gathering disciplines, intelligence-gathering by interception of ''Signal, signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from ele ...
(COMINT) became more important, in many cases replacing traditional photographic intelligence (PHOTINT). The first deployment was eight RB-47s from the three squadrons of the
91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing to RAF Fairford on 8 April 1954. In June 1956, RB-47Hs of the
55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing specially configured for ELINT arrived at RAF Mildenhall for the first of a series of deployments that continued for the next eleven years. The detachment at RAF Mildenhall closed on 1 February 1958, but a detachment was established at RAF Brize Norton in January 1959.
These units performed some of the most sensitive reconnaissance missions of the Cold War. On 1 July 1960, an RB-47H from RAF Brize Norton was
shot down near but outside Soviet airspace. The two survivors, navigator Captain John R. McKone and co-pilot Captain Freeman "Bruce" Olmstead, were picked up by Soviet fishing trawlers, and held in
Lubyanka prison
The Lubyanka ( rus, Лубянка, p=lʊˈbʲankə) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB, and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Ne ...
in Moscow with
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA) pilot
Francis Gary Powers
Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 in ...
, who had been shot down in the
1960 U-2 incident
On 1 May 1960, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while conducting photographic aerial reconnaissance deep inside Soviet territory. The single-seat aircraft, flown by American pilot Francis Gary Power ...
in May. They were released in January 1961. This resulted in a change of procedure: henceforth, reconnaissance flights had to be approved by the British Prime Minister. The final RB-47H mission from the UK was flown on 18 May 1967.
Cooperation with the RAF
Anglo-American nuclear cooperation soon grew beyond basing. Planners from the United States, Britain and Canada met in Washington, DC, from 12 to 21 April 1948, and they drew up an outline emergency war plan called
Halfmoon. A second round of planning conferences with British and Canadian representatives from 26 September to 4 October 1949 was called to discuss Offtackle. To protect the airbases in Britain, the USAF deployed the
49th Air Division in the UK under the Third Air Force from 1952 to 1956. Its
North American B-45 Tornado
The North American B-45 Tornado was an early American jet bomber designed and manufactured by aircraft company North American Aviation. It has the distinction of being the first operational jet bomber to enter service with the United States Ai ...
bombers based at RAF Sculthorpe and
Republic F-84 Thunderjet
The Republic F-84 Thunderjet was an American turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft. Originating as a 1944 United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) proposal for a "day fighter", the F-84 first flew in 1946. Although it entered service in 1947, the Thun ...
fighter-bombers based at
RAF Wethersfield
MDP Wethersfield is a Ministry of Defence facility in Essex, England, located north of the village of Wethersfield, about north-west of the town of Braintree. Originally an RAF station, the original accommodation areas have now been convert ...
were equipped with nuclear weapons and given the task of neutralising Soviet airbases that could threaten the UK.
The RAF started to acquire its own nuclear weapons, and these were supplemented with US nuclear weapons acquired under
Project E
Project E was a joint project between the United States and the United Kingdom during the Cold War to provide nuclear weapons to the Royal Air Force (RAF) until sufficient British nuclear weapons became available. It was subsequently expanded ...
. When Air Chief Marshal Sir
George Mills took charge of
RAF Bomber Command in 1955, he was given the mission of attacking the Soviet airfields; the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall Sir
William Dickson justified the number of
V-bombers on order on the basis that 150 needed to be neutralised. Mills argued that in view of the devastation that
thermonuclear weapon
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a low ...
s could cause in the UK, that this was insufficient, and that policy needed to switch to one of
deterrence
Deterrence may refer to:
* Deterrence theory, a theory of war, especially regarding nuclear weapons
* Deterrence (penology), a theory of justice
* Deterrence (psychology)
Deterrence in relation to criminal offending is the idea or theory that t ...
. Instead of targeting airfields, the RAF should target the civilian population. Thus, the RAF and USAF were operating under different doctrines, but the value of coordinating strategic air forces in reducing expense and duplication was recognised.
A conference codenamed "Encircle" was held in London from 15 to 17 August 1956 to discuss a joint plan. The British delegate was headed by the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff,
Air Marshal Geoffrey Tuttle; the American by the USAF Director of Plans, Major General
Richard C. Lindsay. The British were concerned to retain their independence in the event that the UK became involved in a nuclear war without the United States, and the Americans adopted a conciliatory tone. Despite Anglo-American relations falling to a low ebb due to the Suez Crisis, further talks were held in December. The next meeting took place in Washington, DC, on 21 May 1957. The USAF position was that since it was supplying the weapons, it could determine the arrangements under which they could be used, which included targeting. The British sought to decouple targeting from supply, and insisted that targets had to be approved by the British government. In the end, the US agreed to supply plenty of nuclear weapons, and the RAF became resigned to playing a subordinate role.
The Commander in Chief of RAF Bomber Command, Air Chief Marshal Sir
Harry Broadhurst
:''See also Henry Broadhurst for the trade unionist and politician''
Air Chief Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst, (28 October 1905 – 29 August 1995), commonly known as Broady, was a senior Royal Air Force commander and flying ace of the Second Wo ...
met with Lieutenant General
Thomas S. Power
General Thomas Sarsfield Power (June 18, 1905 – December 6, 1970) was a United States Air Force officer who served as commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command. He was an active military flier for more than 30 years.
Early career
Thomas ...
, who had succeeded Le May as the head of SAC, and the two agreed on a joint targeting plan for the year ending 30 June 1959. This allotted 106 targets to the RAF, of which 69 were cities, 17 were airbases and 20 were air defence sites. By 1962, the RAF target list contained 48 cities, 6 air defence sites and 3 air bases. This was adjusted the following year to 16 cities, 44 airbases, 10 air defence sites and 28
intermediate range ballistic missile
An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km (1,864–3,418 miles), between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ba ...
(IRBM) sites, in line with the enunciated policy the new US Secretary of Defense,
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...
, of not targeting cities.
Thor missile deployments
During the 1950s, SAC pursued the development of an
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as a supplement to its bombers. Delays in the development of the ICBM, and political anxiety over the Soviet Union's deployment of IRBM systems, led the
United States Secretary of Defense
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The ...
,
Charles E. Wilson, to order the USAF to develop an IRBM as a stopgap or fallback. This resulted in the development of the
Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...
missile. Implicit in the decision to develop an IRBM was that it would be based overseas, as its range was insufficient to reach targets in the Soviet Union or China from the US. The UK appeared to be the best prospect, both politically and strategically. The
United States Secretary of the Air Force
The secretary of the Air Force, sometimes referred to as the secretary of the Department of the Air Force, (SecAF, or SAF/OS) is the head of the Department of the Air Force and the service secretary for the United States Air Force and United ...
,
Donald A. Quarles
Donald Aubrey Quarles (July 30, 1894 – May 8, 1959) was a Telecommunications engineering, communications engineer, senior level executive with Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric, and a top official in the United States Department ...
, officially raised the matter with the British
Minister of Defence
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
, Sir
Walter Monckton
Walter Turner Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, (17 January 1891 – 9 January 1965) was a British lawyer and politician.
Early years
Monckton was born in the village of Plaxtol in north Kent. He was the eldest child of paper m ...
, and his
Chief Scientific Advisor
The UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) is the personal adviser on science and technology-related activities and policies to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet; and head of the Government Office for Science.
The Chief Scientific Advi ...
, Sir
Frederick Brundrett, in July 1956. The October 1957
Sputnik crisis made the
missile gap
In the United States, during the Cold War, the missile gap was the perceived superiority of the number and power of the USSR's missiles in comparison with those of the U.S. (a lack of military parity). The gap in the ballistic missile arsenals did ...
a hot political issue. Wilson's successor,
Neil H. McElroy
Neil Hosler McElroy (October 30, 1904 – November 30, 1972) was United States Secretary of Defense from 1957 to 1959 under President Eisenhower. He had been president of Procter & Gamble.
Early life and education
Born in Berea, Ohio, to school- ...
, ordered that Thor be rushed into production despite SAC's concerns about its vulnerability and impended obsolescence when ICBMs became available.
![Thor missile prepared for launch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Thor_missile_prepared_for_launch.jpg)
The first Thor missile arrived at RAF Lakenheath on a C-124 Globemaster II on 29 August 1958, and was delivered to RAF Feltwell on 19 September. Fourteen were received by 23 December 1958. The deployment involved the transport of of equipment by sea, by air in 600 flights by C-124 Globemaster IIs, and 77 by
Douglas C-133 Cargomaster
The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster is an American large turboprop cargo aircraft built between 1956 and 1961 by the Douglas Aircraft Company for use with the United States Air Force. The C-133 was the USAF's only production turboprop-powered stra ...
s of the
1607th Air Transport Wing
The 1607th Air Transport Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the Eastern Transport Air Force, Military Air Transport Service, stationed at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. It was inactivated on 8 January 1 ...
. Thor was declared operational on 1 November 1959, under an agreement that the USAF paid the cost of maintenance of the missiles for five years. The
705th Strategic Missile Wing, which was activated at RAF Lakenheath on 20 February 1958, and moved to RAF South Ruislip on 15 March, provided technical support to the RAF Thor squadrons.
It was agreed that the missiles would be under British control, that target assignment would be a British responsibility in conjunction with the 7th Air Division, and that they would be manned by the RAF as soon as personnel could be trained to operate them. Each missile was supplied with its own
Mark 49 warhead which remained under US control. A precedent here was Project E, under which US nuclear weapons for British use were held at RAF airbases under US custody. This arrangement was acceptable to the British government. The re-entry vehicle, which contained the warhead, was mated with the Thor missile by personnel of the 99th Munitions Maintenance Squadron. The practical difficulty with US custody of the warheads was that if they were all stored at RAF Lakenheath, it would take up to 57 hours to make the missiles operational. A
dual key system was therefore devised. The RAF key started the missile and the USAF authorisation officer's key armed the warhead. This reduced the launch time to fifteen minutes.
The deployment of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
IRBMs to Italy and Turkey in 1961 prompted the Soviet Union to respond by attempting to deploy IRBMs in Cuba. In turn, their discovery by the United States led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. SAC was placed on
DEFCON
The defense readiness condition (DEFCON) is an alert state used by the United States Armed Forces. (DEFCON is not mentioned in the 2010 and newer document)
The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and unified and spec ...
3 on 22 October 1962, and DEFCON 2 on 24 October. RAF Bomber Command moved to Alert Condition 3, equivalent to DEFCON 3, on 27 October. Normally between 45 and 50 Thor missiles were ready to fire in 15 minutes. Without altering the alert condition, the number of missiles ready to fire in 15 minutes was increased to 59. The dual key system was thereby put under strain due to the RAF and USAF personnel being on different states of readiness. The crisis passed, and SAC reverted to DEFCON 3 on 21 November and DEFCON 4 on 24 November.
With ICBMs becoming available, SAC did not foresee the Thor missiles making a substantial contribution to the nuclear deterrent after 1965. On 1 May 1962, McNamara informed the British Minister of Defence,
Harold Watkinson
Harold Arthur Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson, (25 January 1910, in Walton on Thames – 19 December 1995, in Bosham) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation between 1 ...
, that the US would not pay the maintenance support for Thor after 31 October 1964. Watkinson then informed him that the system would be phased out. The last Thor missile departed the UK on 1 September 1963.
Post Reflex era
B-1, B-52 and FB-111 deployments
![Boeing B-52H Stratofortress, USA - Air Force AN1510434](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Boeing_B-52H_Stratofortress%2C_USA_-_Air_Force_AN1510434.jpg)
It was never intended that the
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress would be based in the UK, but it was thought that they might land there for post-strike reconstitution. Accordingly, works were undertaken at RAF Brize Norton, RAF Fairford, RAF Greenham Common and RAF Upper Heyford to accommodate them. This involved strengthening the runways and taxiways to take their weight, which was almost twice that of the B-47, and widening them to allow for their outrigger landing gear. On 16 January 1957, five B-52s from the
93rd Bombardment Wing at
Castle Air Force Base
Castle Air Force Base (Castle AFB, 1941–1995) is a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command base in California, located northeast of Atwater, northwest of Merced, and about south of Sacramento.
The Central Valley base in u ...
in California attempted the
first non-stop jet flight around the world. Three aircraft completed the 23,574 miles trip in an average time of 45.19 hours. Two aircraft diverted, with one landing at
CFB Goose Bay
Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay , commonly referred to as CFB Goose Bay, is a Canadian Forces Base located in the municipality of Happy Valley-Goose Bay in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is operated as an air force base by ...
in
Newfoundland and the other at RAF Brize Norton. This aircraft, a B-52B (53–395) named ''City of Turlock'' became the first B-52 to land in the UK, and the first to land outside North America.
During the later Cold War years, B-52s became regular visitors to the United Kingdom, turning up at bases such as RAF Greenham Common and also taking part in RAF Bomber competitions, but were deployed to NATO on an individual basis, not as groups or wings. In 1962 there were one or two visits each month.
Convair B-58 Hustler
The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight.
The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...
s also visited several times, the first occasion being a Hustler from the 305th Bombardment Wing on 16 October 1963. The last visit was a lone Hustler from the 43rd Bombardment Wing on 16 May 1969, not long before the last of the Hustlers was retired in January 1970. Two
General Dynamics FB-111As visited RAF Marham in March and April 1971 for an RAF bombing competition, and two visited for a NATO exercise in July and August 1986. The following month a lone FB-111A paid a visit to RAF Fairford for the
Royal International Air Tattoo
The Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) is the world's largest military air show, held annually in July, usually at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England in support of The Royal Air Force Charitable Trust. The show typically attracts a t ...
. There were also some visits by SAC
Rockwell B-1 Lancer
The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It is commonly called the "Bone" (from "B-One"). It is one of three strategic bombers serving in the U.S. Air Force fleet along with ...
s in 1989, 1990 and 1991.
Refuelling operations
In the wake of the
1973 Arab-Israeli War and the subsequent
oil embargo An oil embargo is an economic situation wherein entities engage in an embargo to limit the transport of petroleum to or from an area, in order to exact some desired outcome. One commentator states, " oil embargo is not a common commercial practice; ...
, the Spanish government sought to restrict US use of bases there. The agreement reached on 24 January 1976 permitted only a small
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker detachment to remain in Spain, so the rest relocated to RAF Mildenhall. On 15 August 1976, the
306th Strategic Wing
The 306th Strategic Wing, previously the 306th Bombardment Wing, is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Strategic Air Command at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk and was inactivated on 1 February 1992.
The wing's missio ...
at
Ramstein Air Base in West Germany assumed operational control of SAC air refuelling and reconnaissance resources in Europe. It relocated to RAF Mildenhall on 1 July 1978, and remained there until it was inactivated on 31 March 1992. In 1977 the USAF announced plans to reactivate Greenham Common to house a
squadron
Squadron may refer to:
* Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies
* Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...
of KC-135s, due to a lack of capacity at RAF Mildenhall. This led to widespread local opposition, and in 1978 the British Defence Secretary vetoed the plan. Instead, RAF Fairford was reopened and the
11th Strategic Group activated with the aerial refuelling mission. The growing SAC presence with refuelling tankers and aerial reconnaissance led to the reactivation of the 7th Air Division at Ramstein Air Base on 1 July 1978.
![Rockwell B-1B Lancer, USA - Air Force AN0629182](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Rockwell_B-1B_Lancer%2C_USA_-_Air_Force_AN0629182.jpg)
In response to the
Iran hostage crisis
On November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over ...
, President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...
authorised
Operation Eagle Claw
Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas ( fa, عملیات طبس) in Iran, was a failed operation by the United States Armed Forces ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt the rescue of 52 embassy staff held captive at th ...
, a rescue attempt in April 1980. Tanker support was for the operation was provided by eight KC-135 tankers of that deployed via RAF Mildenhall. Three KC-135 tankers from the
305th Air Refueling Wing flew from RAF Mildenhall to
Cairo West Air Base to support the operation on 21 April, and two tankers from the
116th Air Refueling Squadron and
19th Bombardment Wing
The 19th Airlift Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Mobility Command's Eighteenth Air Force. It is stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas. The wing is also the host unit at Little Rock.
The Wing provides the ...
flew from RAF Mildenhall to
Lajes Field
Lajes Field or Lajes Air Base (; pt, Base Aérea das Lajes), officially designated Air Base No. 4 (''Base Aérea Nº 4'', BA4) , is a multi-use airfield near Lajes and northeast of Angra do Heroísmo on Terceira Island in the Azores, Portug ...
in Portugal to refuel a formation of
C-130 Hercules transports en route to Egypt. Two more tankers deployed to Cairo West Air Base on 22 April, and one from the
379th Bombardment Wing 379th may refer to:
* 379th Aero Squadron, training unit assigned to Benbrook Field, former World War I military airfield, 0.5 miles north of Benbrook, Texas
* 379th Air Expeditionary Wing (379 AEW) is a provisional United States Air Force unit ass ...
refuelled a second formation of C-130 transports bound for Egypt. While tanker operations went well, the operation was a complete failure; seven aircraft were lost and eight servicemen died, and the hostages were not freed.
When hostilities erupted between the United States and Libya in March 1986, President
Ronald Reagan authorised
air strikes on Libyan military installations by the
aircraft carriers in the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
and USAFE F-111s based in the UK. The 11th Strategic Group was reinforced with additional
McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender
The McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender is an American aerial refueling tanker aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). A military version of the three-engine DC-10 airliner, the KC-10 was developed from the Advanced Tanker Cargo A ...
tankers deployed from Spain and the United States, so that RAF Fairford hosted seven KC-10s and two KC-135s, and RAF Mildenhall had 12 KC-10s and eight KC-135s. As several countries refused permission for the F-111s to overfly their territory, the F-111s had to fly a mission from the UK to Libya via the
Straits of Gibraltar, only shorter than the British
Operation Black Buck
Operations Black Buck 1 to Black Buck 7 were seven extremely long-range ground attack missions conducted during the 1982 Falklands War by Royal Air Force (RAF) Vulcan bombers of the RAF Waddington Wing, comprising aircraft from 44, 50 an ...
missions in the
Falklands War.
![McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender (DC-10-30CF), USA - Air Force AN0894294](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/McDonnell_Douglas_KC-10A_Extender_%28DC-10-30CF%29%2C_USA_-_Air_Force_AN0894294.jpg)
The KC-10s were chosen as the primary refuelling agents for the mission as they had a larger fuel capacity than the KC-135s, but the short runway at RAF Mildenhall did not permit them to take off fully loaded, so they were topped off by KC-135s en route. Three aerial refuellings were required on the outbound leg and two on the return one, but the F-111 crews had only recently deployed to the UK in January 1986, and were inexperienced in refuelling from KC-10s. To mitigate this, each F-111 was assigned a particular tanker for the entire mission, so the pilots could become familiar with their flying boom operator. When they returned to the tankers low on fuel after the raids, the F-111s latched onto the first tanker they saw, which caused some confusion, as one F-111 was lost. The KC-10 force remained in the UK for several days in case a follow up strike was called for, but none was, and they eventually returned to the US.
Desert Storm
After forty years of SAC bomber deployments in the UK, their first combat operations to be conducted from UK bases came in
Operation Desert Storm
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
, when B-52s used RAF Fairford as a forward operating base. The 806th Bombardment Wing (Provisional) was activated at RAF Fairford using staff of the
97th Bombardment Wing from
Eaker Air Force Base in
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
. Ten B-52s were deployed from various units: one from the
2nd Bombardment Wing
The 2nd Bomb Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command and the Eighth Air Force. It is stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The wing is also the host unit at Barksdale. The wing was a ...
, two from the
416th Bombardment Wing 416th may refer to:
* 416th Air Expeditionary Operations Group, provisional unit assigned to the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command
* 416th Bombardment Wing, inactive United States Air Force unit
* 416th Engineer Command (TEC), US Army Re ...
, and seven from the 379th Bombardment Wing. Crews were drawn from the
62nd Bombardment Squadron of the 2nd Bombardment Wing from
Barksdale Air Force Base in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, the
328th Bombardment Squadron of the 93rd Bombardment Wing from Castle Air Force Base in California, the
524th Bombardment Squadron
The 524th Bomb Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 379th Bombardment Wing at Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan, and was inactivated on 15 December 1992 as the base was drawing down prior to closu ...
of the 379th Bombardment Wing from
Wurtsmith Air Force Base
Wurtsmith Air Force Base is a decommissioned United States Air Force base in Iosco County, Michigan. It operated from 1923 until decommissioned in 1993. On January 18, 1994 it was listed as a Superfund due to extensive groundwater contaminatio ...
in
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, and the
668th Bombardment Squadrons of the 416th Bombardment Wing from
Griffiss Air Force Base
Griffiss Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force installation in the northeastern United States, located in Central New York state at Rome, about northwest of Utica.
Missions included fighter interceptors, electronic research, ...
in
New York. Between 8 and 27 February 1991, the B-52s flew 62 sorties, and delivered of bombs.
Reconnaissance
RC-135 deployments
For many years various types of Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft were observed regularly arriving and departing from the RAF Mildenhall runway. Most of these aircraft had the capability to receive radar and radio signals from far behind the borders of the Communist Eastern Bloc. From Mildenhall the RC-135s flew ELINT and COMINT missions along the borders of Poland, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. The twenty or so specialists on board the RC-135s during such missions listened to and recorded military radio frequencies and communications. Following the retirement of the RB-47Hs, four ELINT missions were flown by a KC-135R Rivet Jaw (59–1465) from RAF Upper Heyford in May 1967. It crashed at Offurt Air Force base on 17 July, and it was replaced by a KC-135R Rivet Stand (55–3121), which flew missions from RAF Upper Heyford in 1968. This was upgraded to Rivet Jaw configuration, which was renamed Cobra Jaw in December 1969. It flew missions in September and November, but during the latter
MiG-17
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 w ...
s escorting it fired their cannons. The aircraft completed the mission and returned unharmed.
U-2 deployments
SAC
RB-45s seconded to the RAF had conducted overflights of
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
and the Soviet Union in 1952 and 1954, and a SAC RB-47E from RAF Fairford had overflown
Murmansk
Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') ...
in May 1954. The first of four CIA
Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "''Dragon Lady''", is an American single-jet engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day ...
aircraft arrived in the UK arrived at RAF Lakenheath in May 1956. The 1st Weather Reconnaissance Squadron as it was styled was actually CIA Detachment A, and its mission was overflights of the Soviet Union and its allies. Its aircraft were manned by a mix of civilian CIA and seconded SAC pilots. The British government was aware of the role of the U-2s, and was troubled by the 1956 U-2 incident, but clung to the cover story that they were for weather surveillance.
![Lockheed U-2S, USA - Air Force AN1194145](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Lockheed_U-2S%2C_USA_-_Air_Force_AN1194145.jpg)
A CIA U-2 from the 4th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (CIA Detachment G) flew to RAF Upper Heyford to conduct missions over the Middle East in the lead up to the
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
, but the British government refused permission, and asked for the aircraft to be withdrawn. CIA detachment G (now calling itself The 1130th Aerospace Technical Training Group) deployed to RAF Upper Heyford again in 1970 response to the
War of Attrition
The War of Attrition ( ar, حرب الاستنزاف, Ḥarb al-Istinzāf; he, מלחמת ההתשה, Milhemet haHatashah) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from ...
. This time it had permission from the British government to fly from British-controlled Cyprus, but lacking permission to overfly France, it had to deploy via the Straits of Gibraltar. In all, thirty missions were flown from Cyprus.
SAC U-2s flew High Altitude Sampling Program (HASP) missions from RAF Upper Heyford from August to October 1962 in response to Soviet nuclear tests. Between May and July 1975, SAC flew a series U-2 missions from the UK inside West Germany to evaluate the SAM defences in East Germany, choosing to fly from RAF Wethersfield so as not to disturb KC-135 and RC-135 operations from RAF Mildenhall. Although the mission was tactical in nature, it was flown by SAC because it operated the U-2s. The deployment was not a success, and one aircraft was lost.
A SAC U-2 supported NATO exercises in 1976, and was successful enough for a more regular presence to be mooted. Between June and October 1977, 34 U-2 COMINT missions were flown. On 1 April 1979 Detachment 4 of the
9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing
The 9th Reconnaissance Wing (9 RW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command and Sixteenth Air Force. It is stationed at Beale Air Force Base, California. The wing is also the host unit at Beale.
Its mission is t ...
arrived at Mildenhall to fly U-2 PHOTINT and COMINT missions. Some 80 sorties were flown in 1979 and 111 in 1980, some in response to the
Polish crisis of 1980–1981. Detachment 4 was withdrawn on 22 February 1983. They were replaced by the TR-1As of the
95th Reconnaissance Squadron
The 95th Reconnaissance Squadron is a squadron of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to the 55th Operations Group, Air Combat Command, stationed at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. The squadron is equipped with several variants of the B ...
of the
17th Reconnaissance Wing
17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number.
Seventeen is the sum of the first four prime numbers.
In mathematics
17 is the seventh prime number, which makes seventeen the fourth super-prime, as s ...
, which began flying PHOTINT and COMINT sorties from
RAF Alconbury
Royal Air Force Alconbury or more simply RAF Alconbury is an active Royal Air Force station near Huntingdon, England. The airfield is in the civil parish of The Stukeleys, close to the villages of Great Stukeley, Little Stukeley, and Alconbur ...
in October 1982. They were withdrawn in June 1991.
Blackbird deployments
![Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (modified)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird_%28modified%29.jpg)
In 1969, the US government began negotiations to base the
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird in the UK. Agreement was reached with the UK government in 1970. A special SR-71 hangar was erected at RAF Mildenhall, and $50,000 (equivalent to $ in ) was allocated for concrete apron work. Although the Prime Minister,
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...
, gave permission for SR-71 sorties to be flown to observe the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the Americans mistook British reticence for reluctance, and nine missions were flown from the US instead. On 1 September 1974, an SR-71 flew to
RAE Farnborough
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in me ...
for an air show, breaking the New York to London speed record on the way there, and the London to Los Angeles record on the way back.
After this public relations success, regular deployments of SR-71s and their KC-135Q tankers to RAF Mildenhall began with training deployments in April and September 1976. The first Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Program (PARPRO) mission was flown in January 1977. Thereafter, deployments were a regular occurrence until April 1984, when the British government finally gave permission for SR-71s to be permanently based at RAF Mildenhall. It is estimated that 919 SR-71 sorties were flown from the UK, including damage assessment missions after the air raids on Libya in 1986. The last SR-71 sortie was flown from the UK on 18 January 1990.
After the end of the Cold War in 1991, SAC was replaced by a new unified command, the
United States Strategic Command
United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands in the United States Department of Defense. Headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, USSTRATCOM is responsible for Strategic_nuclear_weapon, ...
on 1 June 1992, but the end of SAC did not mean the end of the US military presence in the UK, although it steadily declined.
In 2015 it was announced that RAF Alconbury and
RAF Molesworth
Royal Air Force Molesworth or more simply RAF Molesworth is a Royal Air Force station located near Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, England with a history dating back to 1917.
Its runway and flight line facilities were closed in 1973 and demolished ...
would close by 2020, and RAF Mildenhall was due to close in 2023, but this was deferred to 2027, and then postponed indefinitely in 2020. RAF Lakenheath remained an important base. USAF
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather Stealth aircraft, stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both Air superiority fighter, air superiority and attack ...
s began to be temporarily deployed there in 2017, and were expected to be based there permanently from 2021.
See also
*
United States Air Forces in Europe
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
*
United States Air Force in the United Kingdom
Since 1942 the United States has maintained air bases in the United Kingdom. Major Commands of the USAF having bases in the United Kingdom were the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), Strategic Air Command (SAC), and Air Mobility Command ...
Footnotes
Notes
References
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Further reading
*Lloyd, Alwyn T. (2000), ''A Cold War Legacy, A Tribute to Strategic Air Command, 1946–1992'', Pictorial Histories Pub
*Robinson, Robert (1990), ''USAF Europe in Color, Volume 2, 1947–1963'', Squadron/Signal Publications
*Rodrigues, Rick (2006), ''Aircraft Markings of the Strategic Air Command 1946–1953'', McFarland & Company
*Steijger, Cees (1991), ''A History of USAFE'', Airlife Publishing Limited,
{{Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command
Cold War military history of the United States
Cold War military history of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom–United States military relations