Exercise Yeoman definition
Exercise Yeoman a major UK air defence exercise) and NATO exercises. There were training sorties – “profiles” (long cross-country flights with built-in exercises and simulated emergencies) and “Compex” (preparation for Command bombing and navigation competitions). In addition, single bombers flew “Western Ranger” flights to Canada and the USA and “Lone Ranger” flights east. Squadron-based dispersal was practised in “▇▇▇▇▇▇▇” drills – normally involving the dispersal of two or four aircraft.37 Bombers are vulnerable on the ground and in the air and these exposures intensified from 1960 onwards. In its important “interim report” of late 1959, the British Nuclear Deterrent Study Group (BNDSG) concluded that Blue Steel 1-armed bombers would become increasingly ineffective after 1965 and that Blue Steel 2 would only extend V-Force life by two or three years after 1965. It warned that, irrespective of weapons carried, the V-Force would remain vulnerable to pre-emptive attack on its bases. In a rather limp concluding comment, it could only suggest that “some of the bombers would probably be able to escape.”38 35 Minute, DCAS/VCAS, July 30 1959 (RWM/889, in 90/18, “Operational readiness of the RAF”). 36 Wynn, RAF nuclear deterrent forces, 304-306. 37 Ibid. 38 AIR 14/86, “The RAF in the postwar years: Defence policy and the Royal Air Force 1956-63”, T.C.G. ▇▇▇▇▇, Air Historical Branch (RAF) (1987), 237, 241. Much effort went into reducing MBF vulnerabilities. Inevitably, the early focus was on penetrating Soviet defences, rather than avoiding destruction on the ground, as the main threat to V-Force bases at that time was from Soviet bombers. When the Soviet missile threat became dominant, however, vulnerability on the ground received greater attention. The Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) eventually assumed that the Soviets would allocate two 500KT missiles and two 1MT aircraft-delivered weapons to each MBF airfield.39 There was no questioning the fact that V-bombers must be capable of dispersing rapidly. Translating this into criteria applicable to dispersal airfields, selecting those airfields and providing facilities to meet the criteria were formidable and expensive tasks; much time and effort was devoted to it, with the Treasury needing to be convinced, every step of the way, that these measures amounted to adequate insurance and no more.40 A central question (largely, but not entirely, financial in nature) was how far precautionary measures could go in the interests of eff...