Did you see the 15 Jaguars squadrons? They can also do short-range nuclear strike. ITTL there were 40 squadrons in the late 1970s, but 25 converted to Tornado IDS during the 1980s.
Having written that, the Red UK's plan for World War III may be to invade the North of France in support of the Soviet-led invasion of West Germany. In that case another 1,000 Harrier GR.1 to T.4 instead of an equal number of Jaguars may be better as they can cross the channel and operate from improvised forward air bases faster than the Jaguars.
Also ITTL the Red UK's plan for World War III may include invading Norway in support of the USSR instead of the OTL plan which was to reinforce the Norwegians. They'll also want to take the Faroe Islands and Iceland to clear the already compromised ITTL GIUK Gap.
Except those Jaguars would be something closer to a MiG-23 or -27, but they might work. The issue is how many different directions RedUK needs to reach out at once.
Although I dislike the expression
"bunch of" as much as I despise
"target" as a verb,
"load out",
"swap out", "stood up", "multiple", "sport's" when they mean
"sport" or
"sport's" and mathematics abbreviated to
"math" instead of
"math's" - did you notice the 55 squadrons of Tornado IDS (plus 5 to be formed on mobilisation) and 10 squadrons of Buccaneers in the list?
- The former were Su-24 analogues, which replaced some of the Jaguars, the overland-strike Buccaneers and the surviving Vulcans.
- At its peak there would have been 25 Buccaneer squadrons in the Red RAF of which 10 were maritime strike (taking the place of the RN Buccaneer squadrons) and 15 were overland strike squadrons (replacing the Canberra and TSR.2).
- The overland-strike Buccaneers were the standard RAF version of OTL, but ITTL there's the money to have them built with a TFR.
"Bunch" as in "a large but unspecified quantity"
And again, TFR required for these aircraft.
However, I suspect that rather than buying American they'd keep making the old British sonar until the new British sonar was ready. E.g. with radars the Type 965 radar was kept in production for 5-10 years too long and aught to have been replaced by a radar in the Type 1022 class about 5-10 years earlier. That's something that aught to happen ITTL. Then in turn we have Type 1022 replaced by Type 1030 in the first half of the 1980s.
The trick there is for the boffins to
stop f*ing tinkering with it and declare it "good enough for service."
IIRC South Africa had Buccaneers exactly for that kind of mission.
Except
without TFR, which is kinda required for European operations. Yall are gray-and-overcast almost as much as the "wet side" of Washington state! Which is more or less January 1 through December 31, for the record.
Operational considerations, a very rough outline. Feel free to add/correct.
There are three main vectors around which the RedUK would form the deployment strategy -
1. North Atlantic, against the US.
2. Cross-Channel, against France/Netherlands/West Germany.
3. Overseas, colonial and trade route control, also mainly against the US and local actors.
And two basic scenarios for each, namely full WW3 planning and routine Cold War operations.
Generally agree.
"Routine" Cold War
operations against the US in the North Atlantic would likely consist of submarines surfacing in the middle of carrier groups and other similar "pranks." Maybe some "bumper boats" from surface ships, in confined waters like the Channel, Straits of Gibraltar, and Eastern Med.
I'm not sure there would be a lot of
Cold War cross-channel operations, at least not many
open operations. Inserting spies etc, sure. Maybe a few
"oh, crap, new LT totally failed land navigation" events where a unit went across a border, and a few deliberate pranks.
Heard of a few of those, friend who was a tanker in the 1980s saw a Cobra helicopter go zooming overhead to the east. "Hey, I don't think that's right, we're like 500 yards from the Czech border!" Two minutes later, Cobra is absolutely hauling ass westward, with a Hind in hot pursuit. "Oops, that Hind screwed up. Better start the tracks." Two minutes after that, that Hind is now absolutely hauling ass eastward and there's an F-4 chasing it! The F-4 manages to break off before crossing the border, escalation stops.
The prank was the entire Battalion lying in wait on the reverse slope about 2km from the border, there's a Red Army Division camped out in the open on their side of the border. US side wakes up, starts up all the tracks, everyone's checked in on radio. "Tally Ho!" gets called over the radio, and the whole Battalion going charging over the hill at the border. About 250 yards short of the border, "Break it off, Break it off!" and the whole Battalion turns around and goes back over the hill, while the Red Division is in a total panic like a kicked ant hill. US soldiers were amused, I'd assume Red Division much less so.
The Cold War
Overseas, Colonial, and Trade Route Control operations would likely look much the same as in the 1930s, but with different/newer/better equipment. Especially if the UK went Red in 1945, I doubt that they'd allow India to declare full independence. The big carriers would likely remain in the North Atlantic to annoy the USN, while the smaller carriers would be out and overseas.
Side note, I would not expect the Invincible class to get built, I'd expect the "ASW carriers" to be about the size of Hermes. 24ktons, not 16ktons standard displacement. This gives room for at least one catapult on the waist for launching tankers and AEW planes, while still operating Harriers.
For the full war, the plan would probably be to completely cut the US-Europe route, GIUK gap, take Faroes and Jan Mayen, blockade and eventually take possession of Iceland, knock the French navy and naval bases out, possibly land an army in Netherlands and support the WP offensive.
In order, I'd suggest that it'd be knock out the French Navy
and bases, so that any US-sent supplies etc have to land in Spain or Portugal at best, then hit wherever the Supplies landed once they do. This is mostly by air, though I'm sure there would be subs tailing any French ships at sea.
In addition, RedUK sends
every submarine not currently tailing a NATO target into the Atlantic to absolutely ruin the lives of the convoys and any US carriers, on Day 1.
The GIUK Gap is already broken with the UK going Red, the US would likely have to set up the eastern end of the SOSUS lines (or any other sonar listening in) in the Faroes or Norway. So taking that early would allow ships and especially Red Navy subs to also get into the North Atlantic.
Obvious possibility of Red Navy forward basing many subs in the UK so they don't have to run the GIUK Gap, which would reduce the urgency of taking the Faroes.
After taking the Faroes it'd be time to go after Iceland. But while that is important because it removes US aircraft from operating in the middle of your access to the North Atlantic, it's not as critical as taking the east end of the SOSUS lines.
I'd expect the RedBAOR to march West into Belgium and Netherlands, so I'm not sure there's a reason to land an army in the Netherlands except as reinforcements. Ideally this would not require an opposed landing, but it'd be good to equip and practice for one. Obvious option to march North into Denmark instead, but I'd suggest the DDR or Polish forces be assigned to that instead.
