Bad Strategy and Bomber Dreams: A New View of the Blue Streak Cancellation

Abstract

The Blue Streak strategic missile was controversially cancelled by the British government in 1960, a decision usually explained with reference to cost and technical and strategic obsolescence. This new account argues that, on the contrary, Blue Streak was a technical and management success. Strategic arguments against a ‘fire-first’ weapon, vulnerable to a huge Soviet pre-emptive strike, were known to be weak. Previous accounts have neglected a most important factor: the ambivalence towards Blue Streak of its most senior Royal Air Force customers, and their alternative, if unrealistic, vision of a new high-performance manned bomber.