FlyPast 06.2018

WW2COLD WAR DESERTER OR PATRIOT?/// FLEXIBLE RESP ONSE FLEXIBLE RESP ONSE

W

hen NATO abandoned

its Mutually Assured

Destruction military

strategy at the Athens summit of

1963 and adopted one called Flexible

Response, it marked an important

turning point. The MAD policy had

relied on the concept of deterrence:

if two opposing countries or factions

used the full might of their nuclear

arsenal, then annihilation of both

parties would be the result. Both

were therefore disincentivised to

use them. This new tactic called for

responses to aggression from the

USSR to be limited initially to the

use of conventional weapons and

only escalating to nuclear arms as a

last resort.

But although Flexible Response

reduced the risk of an atomic war,

its adoption placed the emphasis

more firmly on traditional warfare

than at any time since the start of

the arms race, and this proved to

be a major problem. The balance

of conventional forces on Europe’s

Central Front was weighted very

heavily in favour of the Eastern

Bloc countries that were part of

the Warsaw Pact military alliance.

The only way of redressing this

(apart from the use of tactical

nuclear weapons) was by speedy

reinforcement of NATO’s front

line with American forces from

the Continental US. This seemed

simple enough on paper but required

massive increases in infrastructure

and training to be a viable counter

to Russia and her allies in central

Europe.

RAPID EXPANSION

Operating bases in the UK, such

as Lakenheath and Mildenhall

in Suffolk, Upper Heyford near

Oxford, Fairford in Gloucestershire

and Sculthorpe in Norfolk, were

available to the USAF, thanks to a

long-standing agreement dating from

the start of the Cold War. However,

the adoption of Flexible Response,

coupled with France’s withdrawal

ON GUARD

102 FLYPAST June 2018

Mick Britton recalls the Flexible Response ‘Coronet’ deployments

from America during the height of the Cold War

North American F-100F Super Sabre 63795 of the Indiana ANG at Lakenheath during Coronet Prize in 1976.

VIA MICK BRITTOn

Below

The McDonnell Douglas

RF-4C Phantom made

its Coronet debut when

aircraft from the Shaw-

based 363rd TRW arrived

at Coltishall in June 1978.

KEY COLLECTION

“By the end of the 1960s the USAF had identifi ed 73

additional locations across Europe from which its aircraft could

operate in war”