Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: willpope697

My father was in the RAF and whilst living in Germany RAF Brüggen specifically they were trained to continue their operations after a nuclear strike provided it was possible with the protection of NBC kit however all civilians would be evacuated

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The advent of nuclear bombs complicated matters considerably. While a revetment would protect an aircraft from some of the overpressure and flash effects of a nearby nuclear event, that protection was not entirely good enough.

If the the nuclear weapon was airburst at low altitude, or surface burst, the high velocity shockwave would often be powerful enough to suck the aircraft out of the revetment and wreck it. If the weapon was airburst at a sufficiently high altitude, a line of sight path may have existed between the bomb and the parked aircraft, resulting in ignition or burn damage, as well as shockwave damage.

Revetments became increasingly displaced by Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS). The HAS is a concrete or combined concrete and earthworks structure which wholly protects the aircraft from blast, flash and other weapons effects. Construction techniques and hardness vary widely. HAS built solely for defence against nuclear attack would be built to withstand some nominal blast overpressure consistent with a nuclear weapon yield in kilotonnes/Megatonnes and some nominal miss distance, consistent with an opponent's delivery system. The most elaborate shelters were further equipped with door seals and filtered ventilation to protect personnel from nuclear fallout effects. This would allow the ground crew, alert pilot and aircraft to 'sit out' a nearby nuclear strike until outside radiation levels declined to the point where the aircraft could be safely sortied again.