ABSTRACT
British officials regarded their new plans to purchase Skybolt missiles for use with the V-bomber force as a stop-gap measure to meet the immediate issue of Blue Streak cancellation. During the Defence Committee's discussions over the future of Blue Streak in February 1960 ministers had felt it advisable to pursue studies of the relative merits of launching Skybolt from a new, long endurance aircraft or of using Polaris submarines as a successor to the V-force. All commentators in the debates over the independence of the deterrent held after the cancellation of Blue Streak recognised the significance of an American offer of Skybolt without strings for the credibility of the Government's position. The terms of the inter-Alliance debate were soon to shift in a new direction. During the summer of 1960, the Eisenhower administration began to reformulate its approach to nuclear sharing problem, and to reconsider the Gates proposals made in April on the provision of MRBMs to NATO's European members.
