It is strange to think that at the time I was on the Squadron we would have been in violation of the Official Secrets Act for showing photos of these weapons, or discussing yield and release profiles. Most of the information was SECRET and above.  Now it is all public domain.

For those interested in the WE177, take a look at Brian Burnell’s site as well;  http://www.nuclear-weapons.info/vw.htm#WE.177

Conventional weapons Yellow Sun Red Beard Dave Clark’s correction to Red Beard yield Last Minute Loading WE177 Vulcan release of WE177 Two man principle Blue Steel

Whilst the Vulcan was designed as a platform for the delivery of nuclear weapons it can also carry a resonable load of conventional 1,000lb bombs, either free-fall for hight level delivery or retarded for the low level delivery profile. Usually in normal squadron training if we were to go onto a live range we would fly either with 25lb practice bombs, or with 1,000lb bombs. Training with 1,000lb bombs would normally mean a load of 7 which were often dropped as a ‘stick’ of 7 rather than do seven individual runs. Sorties with 25lb bombs were fairly frequent but I think I only dropped 1,000lb bombs on two sorties.

Photo J Dillon.  Taken with very wide angle lens at RAF Museum Hendon. Full load of 21 x 1000lb bombs laid out underneath.  Also the WW1 aircraft almost fits under the wing.

The early weapons carried by the V Bombers were quite large items, before being superceded by the smaller American weapon of my time, the WE177 B.

Yellow Sun

The sectional drawing of Yellow Sun was sent to me by Mike Fazackerley.

This photo of Yellow Sun Mk2 is from the Nuclearweaponarchive.org site. It shows the large size of the weapon and a rather flat front end. This weapon weighed some 7,000lb and was in the 1 Megaton range using the Red Snow warhead. The photo below left shows the size of the weapon against a Victor.  The photo below right shows a Red Beard being dropped from a Buccaneer.  This weapon was considerably smaller, around 2,000lb and a yield in the 400 Kiloton range.

Since writing this I have had an email from Dave Clark, which I have added here with his permission. I cannot remember the source which quoted Red Beard as 400Kt, but here is Dave’s view;

“I was an instructor At BCAS Raf Wittering (Bomber Command Armament School) during the 1960s, one of the weapons I taught was the RB2000 and I recollect it was defined as a tactical weapon not a strategic one as it yield was in the low kiloton range of approx 15 to 20 Kiloton not as quoted on your WEB site as 400 Kilotons which was the approx yield of the WE177 range of weapons. Incidentally the flat front end of YS2 was reputedly to slow the thing down on release to enable the delivering aircraft to get away from the detonation.

Blue Steel was a Megaton device which was originally designed to be released at very high altitude and would fly for 200 miles before dropping onto the target, but as the Russian radar got better the role was changed to a low level drop and the weapon would then climb almost vertically until all fuel used, then bunt over and drop at mach 2. This gave it a very short "stand off" range of approx 50 miles requiring the aircraft to make a rapid turn away from target and I recall being asked to warn the aircrew of possible "slight rippling" of control surfaces on detonation if this rule was not observed! Dave Clark”

Yellow Sun against a Victor. From the AWE site. It shows how large the weapon was.

Red Beard being dropped from a Buccaneer.  From the AWE site.

The photo above shows Red Beard on a transport trailer.  Photo is Crown Copyright and taken from the Andy Leitch site.

Last Minute Loading, LML.

Can any crew members assist me here. I have a distinct memory of once, I think it was in my first few months on 44 Sqn in 1970, doing an LML simulation.  As I remember it it involved a large cannister near the aircraft, and myself with a large metal rod.  This was used to remove a simulated nuclear core from the cannister, which was then inserted into the warhead of the weapon.  If I am right so far, then I assume it was a Yellow Sun weapon. My time on 27 & 101 Sqn was always with the WE177B, so that was the last time I tried LML. Can anyone enlighten me?

Since raising the question I have had a reply from Brian Cushion;  “It was a Red Beard John. The canister contained the neutron emitter source. The YS1 was the device with the dustbin and ball bearings! and the YS2 had a similar physics package to the Blue Steel”.

The weapon (WE177) to be carried by the Vulcan in its nuclear role in the '70's was disappointingly small to look at when loaded up in the large bomb-bay of the aircraft.  The weapon area was originally designed in the days of the very early 'Fat Boy' type of weapons which were physically very large, and were in the Megaton range.  The weapon we would have carried was slim and about 3 meters long and would look a little lonely in a bomb-bay which could hold 21 x 1,000lb bombs, indeed this weapon was also tasked to be carried by Jaguar and Tornado aircraft after the Vulcan.  Rather than a Megaton weapon, this was in the Kiloton range but would hopefully be dropped with greater accuracy than the early larger weapons. The weapon was British and as crews we adopted the Two Man Principle when handling the weapon and associated systems. As its name suggests, anything involving the weapon should involve two men, there should be no situation where one man would be able to make settings on the weapon, or decisions on its use, without a second person agreeing.  So how did this work on the ground.

The photo on the right shows a live round in the configuration in which it would be towed out from the Special Weapons storage facility (seen in the background). It is mounted on the trolly which would be towed under the Vulcan, and it has arrived with its carrier (the black metal beam) already mounted.  The small vertical unit between the weapon and the carrier is the ejector unit, this physically ejects the weapon down from the carrier and the bomb bay at release time.  The carrier is then mounted up to the bomb beam in the aircraft, and has electrical connections to the release circuits.

Mike says that the photo is a still from a video showing a 1965 release from what he believes was a Cottesmore based Vulcan.

Two Man Principle.

The weapon would be loaded onto the aircraft by a special team of armourers, with more than one with the weapon at all times ensuring that all necessary checks during loading were done.  Once loaded a Military Policeman, often with a dog and 'armed' would be allocated to the aircraft, the area under the aircraft [sometimes roped off] would be designated as a no-entry area. The policeman would not go in and nor would he allow anyone else in unless they could prove their authorization, and there were two of them.

For the crew the period with the weapon would start with the nav team drawing from 'the vault' the unique key for the weapon loaded on their aircraft just prior to the crew going out to the crew bus, the key would normally be retained by the Radar, and he would then be accompanied everywhere by the Plotter.    and on their arrival at the aircraft the crew would need to prove their authorization to the MP before going near the weapon or entering the aircraft.  Because release switches etc were in the crew area, the cockpit was also subject to the 'two man' rule.  Prior to a sortie it was necessary for the nav team to perform certain checks on the weapon to ensure that it was set up for the delivery mode to be used (airburst, ground burst, laydown or high level), and also for the 'yield' of the explosion. These setting would be done on a panel on the weapon using the key held by the Radar.  The normal process was for the Plotter to read out the checks and settings, these would be actioned by the Radar and each one would be verified by the Plotter.  Once these had all been done there should be no need for anyone else to go near the weapon area.  In the cockpit and on a simulated nuclear drop the Plotter would be required to check many of the switches and settings used during the bomb run. As the Jaguar was a one man aircraft, and by the mid-70s was tasked to carry this weapon, I’m not sure what happened to the rules for that one.

The photo (copyright David Farrant) has obviously been taken in a museum where these (inert) weapons are now shown on display.  The two ‘rounds’ are a little different.  The one on the left is an ‘A’ model and is some 2ft shorter than the 11ft of the ‘B’ model on the right. Also apparent is the ducting for electrical looms on the outside of the ‘B’ model. The ‘B’ was carried by the Vulcan and had a yield of some 400 kiloton, though this was variable through the control panel which is on the other side of the weapon.  The settings were made with the unique weapon key which was carried by the nav Radar.  The red canisters strapped to the tail of the weapon contains the wiring harness which would connect the weapon to the release circuits via the ejector unit on the bomb carrier (see top photo).

As one would expect with any weapon, but especially a nuke, there were a number of safety switches in the drop circuits to prevent accidental release and also an accidental detonation.  Contrary to popular belief a nuclear weapon is relatively safe, to get a full blown nuclear detonation requires that the explosive ‘lenses’ which surround the nuclear core of the weapon should detonate correctly.  These explosive ‘lenses are specially shaped explosive charges designed in such a way that on detonation they will compress the nuclear charge to a point where it reaches ‘criticality’ and so produces the thermonuclear explosion. If the weapon is dropped accidentally then the ‘lenses’ may explode on impact, but not in the way intended; they would be most unlikely to produce a thermonuclear detonation but may cause a scattering of nuclear material. To get a correct release and detonation required bomb doors open, the machine would need to fall a specific distance from the carrier to release a safety switch and the weapon would also require to reach a specific airspeed.  If the previous safety switches had not been operative then the airspeed sensors would not have deployed.  In other words a number of actions consistent with a planned release would have had to have happened for the weapon to become armed.  Without those it was perfectly safe.

The WE177B was planned for low level ‘lay-down’ delivery by the Vulcan, this required that the weapon should be retarded in its fall to increase separation from the delivery aircraft. The photo on the right shows the sort of retardation, but on conventional bombs rather than the WE177.

Blue Steel.

I never had anything to do with Blue Steel, but many people did, so I have included a couple of shots for the sake of completeness.  (And before some oldies complain!)  This was a Stand-Off weapon which I believe had a range up to some 100nm, it also had an inertial navigation system which was integrated into the aircraft nav systems.

Blue Steel.  Photo from site at skomer.u-net.com

Vulcan carrying Blue Steel.  Crown Copyright, from Andy Leitch site.