The second problem was rather less straightforward. Once the Buccaneers had been ordered off, the crews needed to know exactly what it was that they were supposed to hit, and how they were supposed to hit it. Dealing with the second, ‘how?’, question first, the most important factor was the need to minimise collateral damage. This clearly required a precision attack which, in turn, meant Laser Guided Bombs – the reason why the Buccaneer had been chosen in the first place. It was reasoned that the most likely targets would be artillery positions which would almost certainly not be visible to the FAC in his block of flats, which ruled out ground-
I should perhaps explain that ‘tossing’ a bomb involved a minimum of two aircraft, a ‘bomber’ and a ‘designator’ both of which approached the target at low level. The designator would stay low and, having identified the target, direct a beam of high-
While that was a reasonably viable option against something as large and distinctive as a capital ship at sea, it was far less practical against a small, and quite possibly camouflaged, land target that would be very difficult to identify.
To improve the chances of target acquisition it would be necessary to fly higher, but accurate illumination required the designator to be close to the target. These requirements could be combined by approaching at a relatively high altitude, to afford the designator more time to search for and locate the target, and then diving steeply while marking it. To work, this would require an absence of cloud, to permit visual target acquisition, and a benign air defence environment. The seasonal weather could be expected to provide a better than even chance of clear skies and the MOD assessment was that the defences were likely to be confined to SAM-
The upshot of all this was a sortie profile that involved a pair of aircraft departing Akrotiri at 100 feet and staying at that height until they had coasted-
Op PULSATOR -