Tropical Thunderbolts

This article by Flight Lieutenant Ron Dowler was first published in Air Clues in May 1974

No 44 Squadron is one of three Vulcan bomber squadrons based at RAF Waddington. With the squadrons at Scampton, they form the Medium Bomber Force of No1 Group, Strike Command. For the past two years No 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron, commanded by Wing Commander Colin King, has held the MBF Efficiency Trophy.

It has become popular of late to refer to the Vulcans of the Royal Air Force as ‘a force of obsolescent bombers which has had since 1969 a role which is primarily tactical and which has a declining responsibility as the RAF's main strike element'. The 'Polaris' submarines have been, since 1969, Britain's QRA strike element; but the Vulcan is still a long-range strategic medium bomber. It is the only aircraft based in Europe with sufficient range to strike deep into the heart of enemy territory.

Add to this its extremely accurate and diverse navigation equipment, its wealth of ECM, its strength, power and manoeuvrability, its safe 'blind' low-level capability offered by TFR, and its long-proven ability to find and destroy targets, day or night, in any weather, and one begins to appreciate why foreign nations are not so quick as ourselves to defame what is plainly a formidable weapon system.

Anyone connected with strike-attack aircraft will know the problems associated with operating a large aircraft in a battlefield or busy tactical environment. Despite this, the Vulcan does have an important role in conventional limited warfare, and it is this attack role which receives so much comment and so little understanding.

Flown by crews of the Royal Air Force who appreciate its qualities and capitalise on its abilities, the Vulcan is an outstanding aircraft in both strike and attack roles.

When weapon systems of such consequence fly around the world in numbers, public interest is naturally aroused. When these aircraft demonstrate their considerable conventional capability, within hours of arriving on the opposite side of the globe, interest turns to admiration and often envy. This is an account of one such exercise of the Vulcan's secondary role: attack operations in an overseas theatre.

On a cold, foggy November morning, the first of four Vulcans of Strike Command roared down the runway at RAF Waddington. Laden with much extra weight for its round the world flight, the take-off run was noticeably longer than normal; but the aircraft soon pierced the shallow layer of fog and both pilots quickly lowered their visors to shield their eyes from the sun, lying low in a clear blue sky.

Four days and 30 flying hours later the same aircraft threaded its way through dark clouds in a menacing sky and touched down firmly on a recently flooded runway at RAAF Darwin. The local time was 1500, temperature +32°C and the relative humidity 98%. As soon as the Australian Immigration and Health officers had cleared the aircraft, and before the crew had offloaded their baggage, ground crew were lowering the pannier from the bomb-bay and lining up bomb-trolleys laden with 1000 lb HE bombs. Bowsers on both sides of the aircraft pumped in fuel; oils and airs were topped up and aircrew who had flown out by RAF strategic transport stood by to accept the weapon-system, check it out and declare it ‘ready'.

While this process continued the following Vulcans arrived and in their turn were duly processed by this unsympathetic production line. Only the crews who had flown outbound could take a well-earned rest; for everyone else and the aircraft this was only the beginning.

The Established Routes
The start of the in-theatre exercise saw the end of a very important phase, deployment. There are three methods of deploying Vulcans to the Far East and two established routes. The two routes are East-about through the Middle East and West-about through North America and the Pacific. The East-about is the shorter route and the quickest method is a non-stop flight with Air-to-Air Refuelling. This takes a Vulcan from the UK to SE Asia or Australia in only 15 hours; but the tankers would have to be pre-positioned. Without AAR, crews must either single or double-stage. An average single-stage is five hours, so it is quite normal for Vulcan crews to double-stage with a two-hour turn-round. However, an exercise prerequisite for flight safety is that the second stage must be completed in daylight. This makes double-staging East-about difficult; so, while only 17 hours flying is involved, the East-about route normally takes four days to complete.

Flying West-about gives almost five hours extra daylight per day, so double-staging is easily accomplished in daylight, except in winter when there may be only an hour's leeway. This route takes four flying days (five real days because of the dateline) but it does involve 30 hours flying and is hard on the crews. Flying the route in November meant that 44 Squadron's crews had flown from foggy England to snowbound Canada and on to equally snowbound Nebraska on day one; from bitter prairies, through mild and dripping California to tropical Hawaii on day two; across the Pacific to Wake and Guam on day three; and finally on day four, over the equatorial jungle of New Guinea to Darwin in the wet season.

RAAF Darwin’s Station Commander with the Burns crew - November 1973

Planning for the rapid deployment to the Far East had begun the moment the Squadron returned from Malta, three months previously. Sceptics will argue that there is nothing particularly rapid about three months and four days. However, many factors which affect an exercise would not affect an operation to the same extent. Aircraft must be chosen in the light of long-term servicing schedules; personnel selected after consideration of postings, courses and personal problems. The route must be checked and planned by the aircrew flying outbound. As far as possible, normal air traffic and aerodrome facilities will be used. Diplomatic clearances have to be obtained and passports and inoculation certificates of all concerned must be checked. Air transport for deployment, resupply and recovery must be requested well in advance, for there are many other demands upon it. Training routes in the overseas theatre must be drawn up and requests for weapon ranges must be approved by local authorities. All this takes time and is done to ensure that the exercise is completed without any commotion and with the utmost regard for our allies en route, and our hosts.

In an operational emergency aircraft schedules could be extended; there would be no postings or courses; personal problems would be personal; and our allies would go out of their way to permit special procedures en route and on arrival. The greater commotion would be accepted and Vulcans would be operationally 'ready' in the Far East in a very short time.

A Test of Airmanship
Flight profiles flown in the Far East varied, but most were hi-lo-hi. An hour's high level navigation cooled the cabin for the low-level stage, also of an hour's duration. This was followed either by an hour on the range, or the aircraft was flown to high level for fighter affiliation. Darwin in the wet season is a challenging place to fly any aeroplane. Because we were not wearing high altitude pressure clothing, our aircraft could not be taken above 45,000 feet. In the Far East the cumulonimbus (Cb) climb to at least 55,000 feet. Between 35,000 and 45,000 feet, cirrostratus makes visual avoidance of these cells impossible. Mapping radars normally pick up only the cores, though at times even these cut off the way ahead.

There is almost certainly, on every squadron, someone who has flown too close to a Cb of this size. Ask him if he would do it again. On our detachment, a Vulcan at high AUW climbing through 35,000 feet entered an updraught between two Cbs. Immediately, the accelerometer registered a rapid increase in positive g and the Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI) showed more than 4000 feet per minute rate of climb. As the speed approached the limiting mach number the pilot closed the throttles. Maintaining 0·9 Mach the pilot flew his aircraft out of the updraught at 45,000 feet. It was an interesting two minutes for the crew and brought home the Squadron Commander's warning about Cbs. And if updraughts seem to be a problem, the downdraughts around these clouds have blown aircraft into the ground from 1000 feet.

The Northern Territories of Australia present the low flying aviator with a varied terrain. Coastlines are indistinct swamplands, with only a few small hills for navigation aids. Only the largest rivers follow recognisable courses. Inland, dry scrub abounds. The daily torrential rain supports only dry grass and small trees, except near water holes and rivers where the change from scrub to jungle is surprisingly marked. To the east of Darwin is Arnhem Land, an almost impassable desert. It is not a sand desert, but one of small hills 20-50 feet high, riddled with steep gullies and strewn with boulders and it is doubtful if one could ride even a bicycle 20 yards over it.

However, swamps, jungle, scrub or desert, all have one common feature; the absence of man. Apart from the 20 miles around Darwin and either side of the Stuart Highway which runs 900 miles to Alice Springs, there is an almost total lack of roads, telegraph lines, houses, farms or industry. Very occasionally one spots a missionary village or a disused single track mining railway. Most of the time one treats the mapping with a lot of caution and waits for large features to fix one's position either visually or on radar. If one has to divert far from track to avoid Cbs, it could be a long time before one could re-establish one's position. It is for this reason that our low level training routes were within 20 miles of the coast. RAAF fighter routes are within five miles of the coast.

Our primary low-level route terminated about 20 miles west of Darwin at an uninhabited island which is used as an Air Weapons Range. The range is easily identifiable as the most northerly of a group of three sand islands lying a mile off the main coast. Targets are placed on the island by the RAN or RAAF, who also check that the island is clear each morning, but crews must still carry out their own range clearance and score their attacks.

The Vulcan has the ability to deliver up to twenty-one 1000 lb HE bombs onto a target the size of a hangar; or, if required, spread the stick to cover the length of a runway. Vulcan crews regularly drop ballistic and retarded bombs using the appropriate modes of attack.

Colin King, Adrian Sumner, Keith Burns, Brian Murphy, Jim Gardiner, Dai Barnes, Jim Patterson, Mick Richardson, Tom McSorley, Toni Bowen and unknown

Anti-shipping Strikes
While Vulcan crews do not train in the anti-shipping role, they are often tasked with simulating enemy anti-shipping aircraft during major exercises. During 44 Squadron's stay at Darwin, HMNZS Otago and a squadron of United States Navy patrol boats were exercising off the north Australian coast. The Squadron was tasked by the RAAF to carry out simulated attacks on these vessels and were very much appreciated by the naval crews. A few days later, the Otago docked in Darwin and the Kiwis invited the 'Poms' to 'look over their superb defensive armament, which knocked the 44 Squadron aircraft clean out of the sky’. It's odd that, even on the other side of the world, servicemen make friends by insulting one another. Needless to say, we saw and thought far more of the wardroom than of their defence armament!

During the second week of the detachment cyclone "Inez" threatened Darwin with winds of over 100 knots. A crew which had just returned from RAAF Williamtown, near Sydney, where they had flown fighter affiliation sorties against Mirages, were startled when their aircraft was seized by ground crew and quickly refuelled. All crews and aircraft were standing by to fly to Alice Springs.

However, "Inez" turned north and suddenly our two weeks in Darwin were over. It was time to cement friendships and exchange wishes for the future. As well as to a farewell party in the RAAF mess, the Squadron were also welcomed to an informal reception at a combined Australian Army and Navy mess, sited imposingly on a cliff overlooking Darwin and its harbour. At both venues the Squadron were well received and mementoes of a very successful and cordial detachment were exchanged. So, late in November four Vulcans left a typically stormy Darwin and set course for Singapore.

As the four aircraft let down through the afternoon's Cbs which were dumping their loads on Singapore, the crews must have been wondering if there ever was a clear day in the Far East. After a descent through cloud from 40,000 to 400 feet, the aircraft landed in torrential rain at SAF Tengah. Unloading baggage was a tiresome, saturating chore; but at least there was no arming-up exercise and there was the weekend ahead. As well as for a preliminary shopping 'recce' the weekend was used for briefings by the RAFSU on available facilities, local procedures, security and health regulations.

The station is run by the Singapore Armed Forces for their Hunter ground attack aircraft and as well as 44 Squadron, there were detachments of RAF Nimrods, RAAF Mirages (from Butterworth), RNZAF Freighters and the constant flow of RAF strategic transport aircraft.

Profiles flown from Tengah were designed to encompass a Malaysian low-level stage plus either fighter affiliation with the Mirages at Tengah, or 28 lb practice bombing at Song Song range, near Butterworth. High-level flying posed the same problem as it did in Australia, the avoidance of towering Cb. While the heavy rain and turbulence from Cbs was still a problem at low-level, ordinary cumulus posed problems too, as the hills in northern Malaysia climb to 4000 feet and more.

Happily, our early take-offs avoided the worst of the afternoon build-up; and flying low-level over mountainous primary jungle was an experience well remembered and much talked about, while the occasional ten minutes at minimum safe flight level tended to be forgotten.

One facet of Malaysian low-level flying, about which one is always briefed, but which still comes as a surprise, is the height of the trees. Radio and radar altimeters were stared at, with the unbelieving eyes of more than one aircrew member, during a crew's first flight over this terrain. These altimeters faithfully reflected the aircraft's height from the ground and a 300 foot allowance had to be added to the minimum briefed height to offset the height of the trees. In this situation the use of the Mk 1 Eyeball became indispensable.

Natural Navigation Points
Aircrew who have not flown low-level over Malaysia will be forgiven for thinking that map reading over jungle is difficult. While it is true that the tall trees hide rivers, roads and villages, two navigation aids abound; relief and cultivation. The hills and mountains are so steep sided and sharp in outline that they provide good aids to general navigation, especially on radar. This is also true of the cultivated areas as the absence of trees causes a marked change in terrain colour. Wherever the hills flatten out the extent of cultivated land increases so one is rarely unsure of one's position. Route deviations to avoid heavy cloud and to stay at low-level are therefore a practical alternative to climbing out.

Where the difficulty does arise, is in finding fixes which are small enough to update modern navigation equipment accurately. The answer lies in finding roads, railways or bridges which lie in cultivated land. This is easy in the plains where acres of land may have been stripped of trees; but in the mountains, ploughed fields may extend only fifty yards either side of the river. As when flying in Australia, the rule is sit tight, turn on time and wait for a really good fix before updating equipment.

At the end of the second fortnight's intensive low-level flying, all Squadron crews were experienced in dealing with the worst of the Far East's weather and terrain; capable of the finer judgments, knowing when to climb out of low-level and when to make minor diversions, thus enabling the sortie to be successfully and safely continued. Two lucky crews also found their way safely and easily through the approach procedures at Hong Kong and made some minor diversions of their own, during the middle weekend of our two weeks in Singapore.

The final weekend was used for packing ground equipment, stores and personal baggage in preparation for the final phase, recovery. A last minute engine failure meant non-stop work for the engine team, changing an Olympus in record time in the dark with limited facilities and still leaving sufficient time for an air test, before the four aircraft took off for Gan, early in December.

The CENTO route (Gan, the Gulf, Cyprus) is almost invariably used for the return home. Although it is referred to as the East-about route, aircraft returning home are flying West and being shorter, if the need arose, aircraft could recover to the UK in two days. However, as the route is used far more by the RAF than is the West-about route, its facilities are almost fully engaged, ensuring the smooth flow of scheduled air transport. The considerable extra burden that four Vulcans double-staging through these bases would involve is imposed only when necessary. In our case single-staging gave the crews more rest en-route, and the flow controllers more flexibility and fewer headaches.

As fate would have it, one of our aircraft developed hydraulic problems at Masirah, an island off the east coast of mainland Oman in the Arabian Sea, where it remained for four days awaiting spares. By the time it arrived at Waddington, the crisp clear weather which had greeted the first three crews had given way to heavy, dull skies and incessant drizzle. From first take off to the last landing, the detachment had lasted, strangely, 44 days.

Vulcan squadrons are detached to the Far East at least once a year; so what had 44 Squadron's detachment achieved? The frequency of detachments allows all crews to operate in the Far East at least once in a tour; so, at any time, well over half of the force have recently trained there. The regularity of detachments ensures that Britain's ability to rapidly reinforce her far eastern allies and operate efficiently in the theatre is adequately demonstrated.

In its primary role, the Vulcan provides the RAF and NATO with a unique combination of range and penetrating power. In a limited warfare environment, it adds to these qualities the ability to deliver on targets with devastating accuracy large loads of conventional weapons. No 44 Squadron, during its detachment to Australia and Singapore, demonstrated Britain's continual will to meet its obligations and the RAF's ability to carry out its tasks. SACEUR is not alone in his esteem of the RAF's Medium Bomber Force and our far eastern allies regard the Vulcan, as do our European associates, as the RAF's 'Mailed Fist'.