Britain's forward deployment to Europe is identified here as a small WE.177C stock, first associated with Jaguar and later Tornado. The figures come from an article consulted during the conversation: an estimated 159 bombs produced, with fewer than 10 percent possibly deployed forward, perhaps 16. These are provisional figures, and the availability of 40 storage vaults does not establish that 40 bombs were present. The weapons are described as sub-strategic and withdrawn by August 1998. A possible future air-launched replacement is expected to be a missile.
Notable Point · 1:20:54-1:23:18
Britain's limited forward deployment of WE.177
A correction identifies a limited European WE.177C deployment and distinguishes uncertain stock estimates from storage capacity.