Another Quick question

[rickshaw]

Does anybody know what the strengths of 55 and 57 Squadron RAF were in 1982?  In otherwords, how many Victor K2s were in each squadron.

[PR19_Kit]

If I can find my copy of the Osprey Victor book, yes, I'll do some digging.

'Vulcan 607' says they jointly sent 14 Victors down to Ascension if that's of any use?

[McColm]

The Vulcan was deployed at RAF Gibraltar during the 1970-1980s and that has a small runway. I can remember Gib having a Vulcan as a gate guard but it was taken away during the late 1980s.

[PR19_Kit]

Gib's runway is 6000 ft long.

[PR19_Kit]

Does anybody know what the strengths of 55 and 57 Squadron RAF were in 1982?  In otherwords, how many Victor K2s were in each squadron.

Got the true gen on this. 

There were only 24 Victor K2 tanker conversions ever, so it must have been 12 aircraft/squadron, a typical RAF load at the time. The 14 sent to Ascension were drawn from both units but operated under the 55 Sqdn. banner as the Boss of the combined unit was OC 55 and they were the lead RAF tanker unit at the time. The remaining aircraft were needed in the UK to maintain our NATO readiness, but they needed the Vulcan K2 tanker conversions to be built to ensure enough tanker capacity was available. The Herk tanker conversions, only three AFAICS, were used almost exclusively for the support flights to Ascension and Port Stanley after the War itself.

[The Wooksta!]

Have a read of this:

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=216859