RAF Buccaneer

Had it not been for the Labour government's cancellation of the TSR2 project on 6 April 1965 and subsequent dithering over its replacement, General Dynamic's F-lll, it would have been extremely unlikely that the Buccaneer would ever have entered service with the Royal Air Force. Even in the government's announcement concern­ing the TSR2 cancellation there was an inkling that the Buccaneer was a possible replacement. The initial state­ment included this declaration: 'In order to ensure that our services will have an appropriate aircraft in suffi­cient numbers, Her Majesty's Govern­ment has secured from the United States Government an option on the F-lll . . . ' However, of the many ministerial comments following the cancellation, one was by Denis Healey, then Minister of Defence, who said: 'We must see if TSR2's strike role can be carried out by sea- or land-based Buccaneers...'