Forum: aviation.stackexchange.com
Tags: <military><avro-vulcan>
Title: Why was the Vulcan bomber used for the Falklands raid?
Question: There is a lot of information about this complex operation. But can anybody explain why they chose to use an aircraft? They could easily shoot cruise missiles from a ship or ballistic missiles from a nuclear submarine. The easiest and quickest option would be just to shoot an ICBM directly from the UK using a conventional warhead. Just put the coordinates in and task done. No risk to anyone! I think the UK had all the needed technology by that time.

Answers:
sents: text: This is borderline as an aviation question but I will answer it anyway.
text: They didn't use those weapons because they did not have them at the time:
text: Conventional cruise missiles did exist but most were nuclear, and the UK didn't possess any conventional ones.
text: ICBMs with conventional warheads
text: did not and probably still do not exist because they are not a good idea:
text: Their capacity is low: A sub launched ICBM has somewhere around 2.5 to 3 metric tons' throw weight, much of that would be taken up by warhead guidance, thermal protection and other necessities
text: so your actual warhead would be maybe 1000kg, or 2200lb.
text: That's not that big a conventional bomb, and it could only launch one.
text: A fighter bomber could drop 2 of those.
text: The Vulcan bombers on the raid carried 21 1000 pound bombs.
text: They aren't accurate enough: a nuclear weapon can be a bit off and still destroy its target utterly, a conventional weapon needs a great deal of precision.
text: The Polaris missile had an accuracy of 3000ft (900m).
text: That's okay for a nuke, it' still ruin someone's day, but completely inadequate for a 2000lb bomb.
text: More modern ICMBs have more like a 100 meter accuracy, which is a lot closer but still not good enough for a conventional bomb
text: They are expensive: that's a lot of cash for a 2000lb bomb that probably will miss Launching one
text: could start
text: WW3 : If you launch an ICBM someone is going to see it and
text: if they think it might be directed at them a retaliatory strike could be the answer.
text: The world has come perilously close to this more than once, it simply isn't worth the risk!
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/1791/GdD
score: 38
sents: text: Because all of Britain's adversaries were either nearby (Warsaw Pact) or too far to economically fight (China).
text: Since Britain's weapons only needed to reach the Caucasus, they simply never developed ultra-long-range assets like the Tu-95 Bear or B-52 Stratofortress.
text: Unfortunately no-one was willing to provide any of those under Lend-Lease.
text: Honestly, even if the British had appropriate cruise missiles (they did not), they would have no reason to own ones with the range to hit the Falklands from Ascension.
text: Nor would they have any reason to need ICBMs with the range to hit Falklands from the UK
text: (they wouldn't have ICBMs in Ascension, who would they nuke?
text: The Congo?
text: Guyana?)
text: Again the enemy is in Europe, so everything is sized and positioned to go just that far.
text: Your question takes for granted the pre-existence of weapons systems like the "down a chimney" Tomahawk.
text: Honestly, the British inability to do anything but have their SSN crews shake their fists at the islands, was a major impetus in developing those new families of weapons.
text: Every major force watched with keen interest and thought "
text: Gosh, what if we had to deal with one of these?
text: "
text: However, they certainly did have relevant weapons:
text: Aircraft carriers.
text: This type of mission is the reason carriers exist.
text: They could project power from the Spratleys to, indeed, the Falklands.
text: Further, there'd be little point to using cruise missiles or ICBMs before
text: the main force was in position to make good on the advantage.
text: And once the main force was in place, they could strike from there, and did not need long-range weapons.
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/22864/Harper - Reinstate Monica
score: 27
sents: text: The UK needed a surgical strike to neutralize the Port Stanley airport in the Falklands so that Argentine airplanes based there couldn't attack the coming UK convoy or the impending UK ground attack.
text: An attack by carrier airplanes wouldn't work because the carriers, and the accompanying task force, would also be in range of the Argentine planes based in Port Stanley.
text: Using nukes against the airport at Port Stanley would have destroyed Port Stanley and all the UK citizens there.
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/12023/MaxW
score: 10
sents: text: This hasn't been explicitly said, so: The UK didn't have cruise missiles or ICBMs with conventional warheads at the time.
text: The Trident II D5, the UK's only ever ICBM, entered service in 1994: BBC .
text: As for cruise missiles, the BGM-109 Tomahawk has been introduced in 1983 (US) and 1998 (UK): Royal Navy .
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/37704/kraligor
score: 4
sents: text: Someone mentioned the harrier wasn't able to carry a bomb heavy enough to crater the runway.
text: The Vulcan's dropped 21x1000lb bombs on the Falklands.
text: The Harriers in the Falklands dropped 1000lb paveways (Laser guided).
text: They could carry 2 normally perhaps even up to 4.
text: So they could and did drop the same size of bomb, probably more accurately.
text: Though there was radar controlled guns and SAM that would have been made it very hazadous for low flying aircraft.
text: Though the harriers did raid the airport on occasion.
text: Some of have suggested there was inter service political rivalry.
text: The Vulcan raid was a another means for the RAF to contribute to the war.
text: Though the Harrier GR3 pilots were RAF.
text: It was probably a combination of a lot of these factors.
answer_details: author: aviation.stackexchange.com/users/44855/SeaCatS
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
The British did not have cruise missiles with conventional warheads at the time of the Falklands war. They couldn't use nuclear warheads which would have killed all the British citizens in Port Stanley so they used to most appropriate bomb available.
The main reason they did not use conventional cruise missiles, nuclear weapons was that they did not exist at the time or the UK did not possess them for that range and also because the position of Britain's adversaries did not permit it. They did drop a bomb of the same size with accuracy, but the truth is that neither a carrier attack, nor a nuclear strike would work because the first would be shot down and the second would have tremendous consequences for the area.