1961: A United States Air Force B-52H and a Royal Air Force Vulcan B Mk.2 at Edwards Air Force Base conducting flight tests connected with the Douglas GAM-87 Skybolt Air-Launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM) (later redesignated AGM-48 under the 1962 Tri-service system). Neither aircraft carry Skybolt in these photos.
The UK joined the Skybolt program in 1960 and cancelled it's own Medium Range Ballistic Missile (Blue Streak) and a planned air launched missile (Blue Steel II) in favour of Skybolt. The US had agreed to supply Skybolt in return for the UK allowing the US Navy to establish a ballistic missile submarine base in the Holy Loch near Glasgow, Scotland.
But the US lost interest in Skybolt, correctly believing that Sub Launched Ballistic Missiles like Polaris would be more effective and flexible. So President Kennedy decided to cancel Skybolt in late 1962, causing a major political and practical headache for the UK Government. This resulted in an emergency meeting in the Bahamas between JFK and UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan where they concluded the "Nassau Agreement" in December 1962 - under which the US would now instead sell Polaris SLBMs to the UK, to be fitted with British nuclear warheads, for use on Royal Navy Ballistic Missile Subs. The UK therefore ended up with a much better weapon system than Skybolt would ever have been.
Never realized how big the Vulcan was....
No comments:
Post a Comment