PER ARDUA AD . . .
SIR,—ln your issue of November 17 your correspon- dent attacked the Air Ministry and claimed that it is misleading potential aircrew recruits. In support of this charge he advanced the following three points:
(1) That the 'V' bombers are obsolescent and no replacement is under development; (2) That the Lightning's successor is not yet flying in prototype form; and (3) That the TSR 2 has not yet been built.
Taking the last point first, the facts are well known: a full development contract for the TSR 2 was placed over a year ago and it is due to go into service in the mid-Sixties. There is certainly nothing here which is in any way inconsistent with statements made in RAF recruiting publicity.
As for the Lightning, it is quite true that no prototype successor is yet flying. But, although not yet in service, the Mark 3 will represent a radical advance over its predecessors and will remain a formidable air defence weapon until the end of the decade. Your correspondent should not undervalue the Lightning/Red Top combination—a most advanced weapons system.
Then, finally, the 'V' bomber. Here your corre- spondent is on even more uncertain ground. He says that if a bomber with performance comparable to that of a transatlantic jet airliner is adequate 'some- thing remarkable must have happened to aerial tactics.' That is just the point—it has. The advent of Skybolt will mean that the bomber will no longer have to penetrate enemy air defences to attack its target. He compares the bomber force to the 'slower man with the shorter reach.' This is an odd way of describing a force which will be capable of deliver- ing, from outside the range of enemy lighters, missiles
travelling at many times the speed of sound and which even today could by itself destroy as much as 80 per cent, of the principal targets inside the Soviet Union. Meanwhile it is perhaps worth recalling that subsonic bombers still form the main strategic nuclear delivery systems for the US and Red Air Forces as well as for the RAF.
The recruiting campaign is going well. But pilots and navigators are still needed for service in the RAF of the future, in which manned aircraft will for long continue to have a most vital role. Mislead- ing articles such as the one referred to here do not in any way help our interests and do a great disservice to the fine body of men who have already come forward.
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