"Remember our valiant Vulcan, victor of Port Stanley", the headline to Colin Whiting's note (Letters, September 11), epitomises the power of RAF propaganda.

In fact, the six Vulcan raids during the Falklands war were an expensive flop. The damage done was negligible and, indeed, most of the bombs missed their targets.

In the first and most celebrated raid, on Port Stanley, one bomb just clipped the edge of the runway and the remaining 20 bombs missed.

Furthermore, one might reasonably expect the RAF to know iron bomb damage to runways is easily and quickly repaired.

Commander Sharkey Ward calculated the cost of that single raid (one Vulcan bomber supported by at least ten Victor tankers) was equivalent to that of 260 Sea Harrier sorties.

In principle, the Sea Harriers could have delivered 1,300 bombs.

In the real world, they would not have needed that weight of ordnance.

Given the astonishing achievement of the Royal Navy's Sea Harrier force in the Falklands, one cannot doubt just a few sorties would have delivered sufficient bombs, with greater accuracy, against more valuable targets.

The Vulcan missions were not only a waste of resources but also compromised Royal Navy operations in the south Atlantic.

  • Mike Strong, Warleigh Road, Brighton