Editing Vickers Valiant (section)

===Conventional warfare===
[[File:vickers valiant camouflaged on ground arp.jpg|thumb|Camouflaged Valiant at [[Bristol Filton Airport|Filton]], [[England]]. Circa mid-1960s]]
Peacetime practice involved the dropping of small practice bombs on instrumented bombing ranges, and a system of predicted bombing using radio tones to mark the position of the bomb drop over non-range targets, the bomb error being calculated by a ground radar unit and passed either to the crew during flight or to a headquarters for analysis. Use of the Valiant's Navigational and Bombing System (NBS) and the high quality of assigned crews, who were typically veterans and often had been previously decorated for wartime service, meant a high level of bombing accuracy could be achieved, greater than that of aircraft during the Second World War. According to Gunston and Gilchrist, Valiant crews were able to place practice bombs from an altitude of {{convert|45000|ft}} within a few meters of their assigned target.<ref name = "bomber 79"/>

In October and November 1956 the Valiant was the first of the V-bombers to see combat, during the Anglo-French-Israeli Suez campaign. During [[Operation Musketeer (1956)|Operation Musketeer]], the British military operation in what became known as the [[Suez Crisis]], Valiants operating from the airfield at Luqa on Malta dropped conventional bombs on targets inside Egypt. Egyptian military airfields were the principal target; other targets included communications such as [[radio station]]s and transport hubs.<ref>Bowman 2016, p. 158</ref> On the first night of the operation, six Valiants were dispatched to bomb [[Cairo West Air Base]] (which was aborted in flight due to potential risk to US personnel in the vicinity) while six more attacked [[Almaza Air Base]] and a further five bombed [[Kibrit Air Base]] and Huckstep Barracks.<ref name = "black wright 42">Blackman and Wright 2015, p. 42.</ref><ref name = "darling 42">Darling 2012, p. 42.</ref>

Although the Egyptians did not oppose the attacks and there were no Valiant combat losses, the results of the raids were reported as disappointing. Although the Valiants dropped a total of {{convert|842|LT}} of bombs, only three of the seven airfields attacked were seriously damaged.{{#tag:ref|The Valiants had not yet been fitted with their operational Navigational and Bombing System (NBS) and were using Second World War bomb-aiming techniques.|group=N}} The Egyptian Air Force had been effectively destroyed in a wider series of multinational attacks of which the Valiant bombing missions had been a part.<ref>Bowman 2016, pp. 158, 161.</ref> It was the last time RAF V-bombers flew a live combat mission until Avro Vulcans bombed Port Stanley airfield in the Falkland Islands during the [[Falklands War]] in 1982.<ref>McClelland, pp.175–178.</ref>