Following on from Duncan Sandys much lamented 1957 white paper on defence in which fighters would be replaced by guided missiles, would it not have made sense to fill the resulting gap in technology with American century series fighters?
The Lightning gave the RAF a good point defence interceptor but what about all the other fighter roles which had to be covered by earlier generation Hunters? Don't get me wrong the Hunter is one of my all time favourites, but with the emergence of 2nd generation types like the MiG19 and the Super Mystere UK policies had left the RAF lagging a little by the mid 1960s.
The F100 for example would have made a good supersonic fighter bomber for RAF squadrons in West Germany during the 1960s and the F105 would have been a long range strike fighter with nuclear capability, perhaps making the RAF acquisition of the Buccaneer unnecessary. Another type that might have been useful would be the RF101 Voodoo, an extremely fast reconnaissance fighter which could have replaced the Hunters in that role too. Would the F106 Delta Dart have made sense as a javelin replacement, operating alongside the short range Lightning or is that going too far?
The Lightning gave the RAF a good point defence interceptor but what about all the other fighter roles which had to be covered by earlier generation Hunters? Don't get me wrong the Hunter is one of my all time favourites, but with the emergence of 2nd generation types like the MiG19 and the Super Mystere UK policies had left the RAF lagging a little by the mid 1960s.
The F100 for example would have made a good supersonic fighter bomber for RAF squadrons in West Germany during the 1960s and the F105 would have been a long range strike fighter with nuclear capability, perhaps making the RAF acquisition of the Buccaneer unnecessary. Another type that might have been useful would be the RF101 Voodoo, an extremely fast reconnaissance fighter which could have replaced the Hunters in that role too. Would the F106 Delta Dart have made sense as a javelin replacement, operating alongside the short range Lightning or is that going too far?