I’m sure that anyone from Strike Command remembers ‘TACEVAL’. The following are some of my memories from the Vulcan side.

I believe TACEVAL is the acronym for Tactical Evaluation, and I think the idea came across from the States where it was practiced in SAC. The idea was that a team of ‘umpires’ and specialists, often including people from Group Standardization, would be sent out to a base to test all aspects of operational readiness, supposedly unannounced, but sometimes word would get out, or there would be completely false ‘dead cert’ hot gen that it would be next week.  Sometimes the rumour was right, often not.  But why was it always set in motion at 04.00 on a Monday morning, I’m sure the Russians would have been more imaginative than that. Once you got the call to get in to the Squadron for a Taceval it was a case of grabbing an overnight bag and getting in as quick as possible, then the fun would start for about 4 days.

The exercise did not only involve squadron aircrew, the whole station was involved, so the RAF Police would stop everything that moved, but then they had to believe we might be foreign agents; sometimes the Taceval team would organize a group of ‘activists’ to try to break in to the camp, and the poor old police would have to try to keep them out. Other groups such as armourers and fire safety crews would be involved in simulated aircraft accidents, simulated nuclear weapon problems etc, so there was usually something going on somewhere. For the crews and ground crew there would normally be a dispersal, normally a number of crews from one or other squadron would find them selves in some out of the way location such as Macrihannish for a few days, living in QRA caravans.

For the crews there would be some flight planning for a simulated war profile, usually before dispersal and the period at the dispersal would normally end with a scramble and a sortie, with a land back at home base.  The QRA caravans were not very comfortable, and I remember putting my hand through the glass in one window trying to let some air in. Once established at the dispersal site there would usually be a number of simulated ‘alerts’ requiring crews to rush to the aircraft and go through startups.  The whole thing was controlled by the ‘Bomber Controller’ who would be sending crews the various messages and code words for authentication.

The normal readiness state on the dispersal was ‘One-Five’, ie at 15 minutes readiness to take off.  When the Bomber Controller progressed the exercise crews were moved to ‘Readiness Zero-Five’, or 5 minutes to takeoff. This readiness state did not mean that you would go in 5 minutes, merely that you had the capability to be gone in that time, if the exercise required it, so you could be held at ‘Zero-Five’ for quite a while. Going to ‘Zero-Five’ meant that the crew grabbed all flying kit and sortie info and were transported to the aircraft.  Once there the crew would board and go through ‘Zero-Five checks’ which would prove a lot of the aircraft, short of starting engines. The next phase was for the Bomber Controller to call for ‘Readiness Zero-Two’, or 2 minutes to takeoff.  This readiness state required engine start, often by Rapid Air which made a lovely noise!! at this state the crew were ready to go unless their checks revealed a problem with the aircraft that would prevent the crew flying the exercise sortie. Because ‘Zero-Two’ involved engines running, this readiness state would not be held for too long before crews were either stood down, usually to One-Five, or the order to Scramble was given. Scramble involved authenticating the code word, and then getting airborne in sequence.

Taceval was a good way to test operational readiness, but it was also an opportunity for an individual or a crew to ‘drop a bollock’ and have some sharp eyed umpire pick it up. Not good!  When ever I think back to Taceval I’m always reminded of the Dr. Strangelove film, always worth dragging out every couple of years for a reminder of the mad old days.

Usually the exercise went off pretty well, but there might be people out there who could send me some good ‘war stories’ of a few ‘dropped bollocks’.