Buccaneer S.2 XV350 was used for extensive trials with Martel during 1969, and is seen here with three television examples, with the associated electronics pod on the starboard inner pylon. The missile was also fitted to the RAF’s Jaguars and one could be fitted to the Nimrod, as well as France’s Mirage III and F1 fighter-bombers.

In British use, the Martel was fitted to the Blackburn/Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer. This example of the latter at Hanover Air Show in 1974 carries a pair of anti-radiation Martels on its outer wing pylons and an antishipping television variant on its starboard inner pylon, for which the associated pod is on the port inner pylon.

A Westinghouse AN/ALQ-101 (V) pod attached to a port wing pylon of a Buccaneer. Rather than simply trying to overwhelm the enemy radar with “noise”, this pod manipulated the transmissions from the enemy’s radar-guided weapons and retransmitted them back to the source, apparently placing the podded aircraft some distance away from its actual location.

Weighing three times as much as the AGM-45A Shrike and with half the speed, the AS.37 Martel had much greater range and destructive power. The Anglo-French Martel - Missile Anti-Radiation, Television (referring to its two guidance options) - equipped the Armee de I’Air’s Sepecat Jaguars, as seen here on the centreline pylon.

When the RAF’s Valiant tanker force was found to have substantial spar fatigue in 1965 and was withdrawn, the programme to convert Victors into tankers was stepped up, with outer wing refuelling pods being incorporated to create the Victor BK.1/1A (bomber/tanker) and K.1/1A (pure tanker) variants. This No 57 Sqn BK.1A, XA926, is seen at Marham in June 1968.

One of very few photographs taken of the “lash-up" of a Martel missile on the starboard outer wing pylon of a No 232 OCU Victor at Marham in 1982. The Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands in April 1982 led to the conception of the Victor as a “Wild Weasel” - the colloquial name for an aircraft specialising in suppressing enemy air defences.

With its sleek shape and distinctive crescent wing, the Victor was the most advanced of the three V-Bomber designs and unsurprisingly was the last of the three to enter RAF service. The first operational bomber unit to receive the Victor B.1 was No 10 Sqn at Cottesmore, where this photograph was taken in September 1958.

Avro Vulcan B.2 XM597 participated in the three Operation Black Buck sorties - Four, Five and Six - allocated to the suppression of enemy radar on the Falklands during May-June 1982, and is seen here fitted with an AGM-45A Shrike missile on its port wing pylon.