Avro Vulcan vs. Boeing B-47 Stratojet for RAAF 1959?

I have just finished reading The Vulcan Option for the Royal Australian Air Force.
It is a paper put out by the RAAF’s Air Power Studies Centre, (written by Denis O’Brien, March 1994).

The study goes into the ‘Murdoch Mission’ of 1954, when Air Vice-Marshal A.M. Murdoch left Australia with the responsibility to select aircraft needed by the RAAF to operate into the 1970’s.
Both the Air Attaché in Washington and the Air Office Commanding the RAAF Headquarters in London were instructed to obtaining formation relating to the new advanced generation of combat aircraft then either in service or in development.

Interestingly the ‘Murdoch Mission’ included the study of potential aircraft to fulfill RAAF Operational Requirements
No.OR/AIR36 ‘Bomber’ aircraft;
No.OR/AIR34 ‘Fighter’ aircraft;
No.OR/AIR33 ‘’Medium Range Transport’ aircraft; and No.OR/AIR37 ‘Applied Jet Training’ aircraft.
(Could you just imagine having this opportunity???)

The main topic of this paper, as its title suggests was that of considering a bomber on the basis of selecting aircraft entering squadron service from mid-1959 replacing the English Electric Canberra light bomber in RAAF service.
In March 1959, the ‘Murdoch Mission’ report unanimously recommended the purchase of the Avro Vulcan or Handley Page Victor strategic bomber, with the desire to be nuclear-capable was confirmed.
It should be noted, that as the new bomber was not to be ordered until 1956-57, a decision between the Vulcan and Victor was to be delayed so to allow further evaluation of the two designs. ‘If however, a decision had to be made at the time or writing the report, the Mission would recommend the Vulcan design’, it concluded in its report.

But the tremendous cost of re-equipping the RAAF with the likes of the 39 x Vulcan bomber it estimated it needed (get this for an expected service life of 16-years!), would not just include the airplane itself at an estimated cost of Sterling 538,000 per aircraft ex-works did not fare well.
For by Aug 1956 the cost of an aircraft had increased to Sterling 760,000 with Olympus 12 engines and Sterling 900,000 withlympus6 engines.
This figure did not include costings for engine spares, ground handling equipment, bomb gear, technical publications or flight sims. The cost of infrastructure was also a significant factor to take into consideration.

During the time of the investigation into acquiring the V-bomber for the RAAF, the Australian Minister for Defence, Sir Philip McBride, in a letter to the then Prime Minister, stated:
‘The Americans might be induced to assist our defence effort by storing some of the reserve aircraft in Australia. ‘He (Minister for Air, Athol Townsley) mentions that the United States Air Force is re-equipping with the Boeing B-52 heavy bomber, which is to heavy for our requirements, but that the B-47 which it replaces would be suitable; he suggests that 30 of the latter could be stores here (Australia), and we would pay a hiring fee for those used.’

My question of this forum is –
– Of the Avro Vulcan and Boeing B-47 Stratojet, which would have been the more
capable design to have served the RAAF?

– Of the Vulcan and the B-47, which bomber would have been more suited to modifications and upgrades?

– Of the Vulcan and the B-47, which design would have been better suited and
capable (structural!) to endure the change to low-altitude penetration missions
with the advent of the likes of the Soviet SA-2 ‘Guideline SAM?
– Possibly the largest consideration to a small air force, such as the RAAF, which
would have been the most cost effective to both purchase and operate? Does anyone have cost figures of the B-47?

Of added interest during the ‘Murdoch Mission’ to the United States and Britain were the likes of-

– Details of experimental aircraft such as the Avro 720, Bristol 188 and the
Chance-Vought XF8U-1 were included in its report

– In 1955, an examination of airfield suitable to support the operations of the likes of Vulcan / Victors bombers concluded that none of the RAAF existing airfields meet RAF Bomber Command Class 1 airfield criteria; it was considered that limited AUW operations (150,000 lbs) would be possible at Amberley, Darwin, Williamtown and Pearce.
To comply with the RAF standards (and maximum fuel loads required to reach the RAAF’s anticipated targets (– north of the Kra Peninsula to South China border) would have required further significant additional expenditure.

– It was calculated that peacetime flying training requirements were estimated at 480-hours per month or 30-hours per Vulcan per month. Which equates to 60,000 gallons per month of fuel burnt?

– Added to this was a report by the General Manager of the Government Aircraft Factories, Mr M.B. Woodfull, dated May 1955, on the ability of Australian aerospace industry to manufacture and or maintain and modify the chosen winning design.
Of interest was his final report, Woodfull was so concerned about the reliability of
the United Kingdom to provide spares, particularly in time of war that he
suggested that if the Avro Vulcan was selected as the winning design, then he
recommend that they be re-design to take a U.S. engine and Appendix ‘A’
equipment should be performed.

Regards
Pioneer