Bombers Soviet

Soviet interceptor fighter development , note by the Chief of Air Staff, COS (50) 357, 13 Sep. 1950 Minister of Defence to Prime Minister, 17 Nov. 1950 Minister of Supply to Prime Minister, 22 Nov. 1950, PREM 8/1357, TNA. This file also contains a report, dated 16 May 1950, by the Joint Intelligence Bureau on production of Russian aircraft, including jet fighters with swept-back wings and twin-jet bombers. 

The British aircraft industry appeared to be backward compared with its American and Soviet counterparts, but this was mainly because the expectation that the maximum danger of war lay in the future, about 1957, led to a gap in British development and production of a number of important weapons systems. The timing of up-to-date strategic bombers was linked to the development of the British atomic bomb, which, although first tested in October 1952, would not be ready for operational use until about 1956. Meanwhile Britain was wholly dependent on the United States for nuclear deterrence. 

The main thrust of the Swinton Committee s report in November 1954 was its support for the RAF s case for a nuclear deterrent of 240 V-bombers. It was argued that the very survival of Britain in war would depend upon the prompt elimination of Soviet air bases, and that that task could not be left to the US Strategic Air Command as there could be no assurance about American priorities as regards targets. This argument was publicly stated by Churchill on 1 March 1955 in the debate on the 1955 Defence White Paper, which announced the decision to develop the hydrogen bomb. ° Yet the priority for the nuclear deterrent was not absolute the White Paper also stated that Britain must play its part in defending the interests of the free world as a whole, and particularly the Commonwealth and Empire , in the Cold War, for which role the army and navy were required. ... 

The British policy of interdependence with the United States was not without its disadvantages. As Baylis has pointed out, collaboration with the Americans in targeting made it difficult to pursue an independent strategy of how to employ nuclear forces. The original targeting strategy for the V-bomber force, as presented to the Swinton Committee in 1954, had been to strike at Soviet bomber bases, so as to reduce the scale of the nuclear attack on the United Kingdom (see pp. 319, 320). 

SRAM is designed to attack and neutralize enemy terminal defenses, particularly the Soviet surface-to-air missile (SAM) defenses. The weapon will have the capability of penetrating terminal defenses and striking mission targets while the bombers stand off outside the range of enemy defenses. It will also be able to attack enemy SAM and anti-aircraft sites so that bombers can strike primary targets with other SRAM or conventional bombs... 

The movie Dr. Strangelove (released in 1964) is a comedy about cold-war paranoia. This film raises questions that are still relevant, including the debate about water fluoridation that lies at the heart of it. In the film. General Jack D. Ripper sends one wing of the Strategic Air Command to bomb their targets in the Soviet Union. Government and military authorities try to stop the bombers and, in anticipation of failure, plan for the next step. 

Fig. 37.2 B-25 bombers and P-39 fighters at Ladd Field in Fairbtmks, AK, awaiting transfer to Russia. The template for Soviet red star insignias used on the eiirciaft was obtained from a local Texaco gasoline station (Hays, 1996). Photograph courtesy of U.S. Air Force...

One of the widely cited reverse engineering examples in the military is the Soviet Tupolve Tu-4 (Bull) bomber. During World War n, three battle-damaged... 

U.S. B-29 Superfortress bombers made emergency landings in then Soviet Union territory after missions to Japan. Most airplanes can be distinguished from one another by their respective characteristics. However, the similarity between the general characteristics of the U.S. B-29 Superfortress bomber and the Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 bomber, illustrated in Figure 1.4a and b and Table 1.1, has led many people to believe tiiat the Tupolev Tu-4 was a replica of the B-29... 

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