V-bombers

The idea of supplementing the V-bombers with surface-to-surface ballistic missiles with a range of 1,000 miles had led in 1955 to an... 

Robert H. Paterson, Britain s Strategic Nuclear Deterrent From Before the V-bomber to Beyond Trident (London Frank Cass, 1997), pp. 45—6. 

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). 

Aldermaston had worked hard producing the Granite devices, which were now abandoned in favour of the American designs. Assimilating the American data took some time. The Mark 28 in the form of Red Snow would be used not only in the free fall bomb for the V bombers but also as the warhead for the Blue Steel stand-off missile and the Blue Streak ballistic missile, although Blue Streak was cancelled before it was deployed. 

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