WADDINGTON'S A-7 INVASION
No fewer than 36 Air National Guard A-7 Corsair IIs descended on RAF Waddington in 1985 for Coronet Buffalo. Editor Dino Carrara spoke to two pilots who took part in this memorable Cold War deployment.
Warsaw Pact forces hugely outnumbered those of NATO during the Cold War. But this imbalance of military might led to a change of strategy by the Western alliance that created a bonanza for aviation enthusiasts across Europe.
Up until 1963 NATO’s defence policy was Mutually Assured Destruction, which relied on the deterrent effect of nuclear weapons. It was decided at a NATO summit that year to change to what was called Flexible Response where aggression from the USSR would be met by a conventional reply, using nuclear weapons only as a final option.
