Origins In the late
World War II period, the
British Army formed the Guided Weapons Committee to consider their needs for missile weapons. They identified seven designs of interest, mostly
surface-to-air and
surface-to-surface missiles. In the surface-to-surface role, they identified the need for three
nuclear armed weapons, for short, medium and long range use. Given the general feeling that another war was at least ten years off, and the poor post-war economy, little work on these plans was carried out. The opening of the
Cold War led to new priorities, and by 1954 the missiles were once again being seriously considered. By this time, it was decided that the short-range mission was to be filled by a new nuclear artillery shell,
Yellow Anvil, leaving only the two longer-range designs.
English Electric (EE) won the initial contract for a design study on the long range weapon, which became known as
Black Rock under the
Ministry of Supply's
Rainbow Code system. The project was abandoned, with observers suggesting it was due to its role overlapping with the
Royal Air Forces deep strike mission which they considered their own.
Red Rose In November 1954, English Electric was also handed a development contract for the medium-range missile. This was given the code name Red Rose in August 1956.
Leslie Bedford, Director of Engineering at EE's Stevenage division, initially proposed adapting their Red Shoes
surface-to-air missile (SAM) for this role. Red Shoes became known as
Thunderbird when it entered service with the Army in 1959. The modified design was referred to as the 30-mile RS Conversion, but may have also been known as Red Herring, although whether this an official Rainbow Code or simply a nickname is not known. Given the much heavier warhead compared to the one used in the anti-aircraft role, the RS conversion required extra thrust for takeoff. To supply this, it added two more of the Red Shoes' Gosling
solid fuel rocket boosters for a total of six. Like Red Shoes, the missile was mounted on a transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) towed by a
Bedford RLHC truck and then raised to about 45 degrees for launch. For guidance, they proposed using the
AA No. 3 Mk. 7 gun laying radar to accurately measure its trajectory during launch and compare that to a pre-computed path and send corrections via radio. The
War Ministry was not impressed, having found that Red Shoes was difficult to maneuver during transit with four boosters and concerned that six would make it even more difficult, especially as the fins on the boosters had to be enlarged to provide more stability for the heavier missile. Unknown to either EE or the Army at the time,
Vickers also began development of a weapon to fill the same role, the "35 mile Artillery Weapon System". Their design was a single-stage solid fuel rocket in a dedicated TEL. The initial design was to make the TEL look like a normal trailer and haul it as a semi-trailer, which would allow it to be hidden among
motor pool vehicles. A later proposal used a dedicated single-piece TEL with its own
prime mover fixed to the trailer. Although initially interested, the Army eventually decided against this design because it flew at the relatively slow speed of and reached an altitude of only , which would allow it to be attacked by SAMs. The final entry was from Bristol, the "RP.15", which, like EE, proposed adapting a version of their Red Duster missile, later known as
Bloodhound. It is unclear whether this was seriously considered for the role.
New Red Rose In 1956 the
Corporal missile had been adopted by the
Royal Artillery as a battlefield
tactical nuclear missile, filling much the same role as Red Rose. This missile was
liquid-fuelled, and required a large convoy of support vehicles to prepare it for launch, which was a slow process. It also required continual
command guidance in flight, yet only achieved relatively poor accuracy. Also in use within the Royal Artillery was the
Honest John rocket. This was solid-fuelled and could be launched rapidly, but was unguided and had only short range. There was a clear requirement for a missile that would combine the range of the Corporal, the ease-of-use and rapid reaction of Honest John, and a new guidance system with higher accuracy than either. EE had won the contract for servicing both of these missiles in the field, and it was no surprise when the Army turned to them to consider a proposal to fill a new Red Rose. It also took advantage of the shrinking dimensions and weight of nuclear warheads and so only required a much smaller payload. Given the lighter warheads, Red Rose could meet the range requirements without any changes to the rocket. But the two-part TEL was a problem as it would not fit into the RAF's standard
Argosy transport aircraft. The first test vehicle flew in 1960 from
Aberporth followed by full-range trials at
Woomera. It was however promised for delivery in 1961. In 1960 West Germany agreed to buy Sergeant rather than to wait for Blue Water. As this represented the other major customer for Blue Water, and also the likelihood that other potential customers such as Turkey and Italy would then follow this American path, the sales prospects for Blue Water became bleak. The programme was cancelled on 10 August 1962, as the UK government, whilst still wishing to purchase the missile, was no longer willing to fund the entire development costs itself. At the time, it was suggested that the cancellation was also the outcome of a successful program to better integrate the RAF and Army. The program, started in 1960, aimed to improve air-ground coordination, allowing RAF aircraft to be used more effectively in the close-support role. Blue Water was, to a large degree, a replacement for long-range artillery, a role that was easily fulfilled by the RAF's TSR-2, as long as those aircraft were available to the Army on a timely basis. The need for missile artillery was replaced by the immediate availability of flying artillery. This suggestion is backed by public comments at the time of the cancellation; "there are plenty of nuclear weapons in Europe already, and that TSR.2 could cover many of the targets the army had in mind for Blue Water".
Solly Zuckerman, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the incoming Minister of Defense
Peter Thorneycroft, was not asked for his opinion on the system. He did, however, readily offer it to the press, stating "My own view, which I made perfectly clear, was that Blue Water should go. While I recognized that PT.428 was highly ambitious from a technical point of view, it made more sense to spend such money as was available on a system that had some ostensible military purpose, rather than on one that I thought had none." His concerns were mostly based on the feeling that any use of nuclear weapons on the battlefield would quickly lead to outright nuclear war, so Blue Water's contribution to the outcome would be close to nothing. In contrast, the PT.428, a rapid-firing SAM missile battery also being developed by EE, had a clear military purpose of attacking enemy
tactical aircraft in any war situation, nuclear or not. By this time, however, the War Office had been offered the choice of cancelling PT.428 or Blue Water. The Army decided to cancel the former to save the latter, leaving EE with no ongoing project when both were ultimately cancelled.
Air-launched stand-off variant A number of references claim that a version of Blue Water was designed for air-launch by the
TSR-2 strike aircraft in the
stand-off attack role. The modifications were relatively minor, tapering the rear fuselage and adding a cowling over the rocket nozzle to reduce drag in flight. The fairing would be blown off by the rocket motor when fired. Top secret MoD papers since released reveal that an air-launched version of Blue Water was considered for development, but this development clearly never proceeded, and the project had been abandoned by the time the TSR.2 was cancelled in 1965. ==Description==