Британская ядерная ракета Blue Water: история разработки и отмены проекта.

British missile
Blue Water was a British battlefield nuclear missile of the early 1960s, intended to replace the MGM 5 Corporal, which was becoming obsolete. With roughly the same role and range as Corporal, the solid fuel Blue Water was far simpler to use and would be significantly easier to support in the field. It was seen as a replacement for Corporal both in the UK as well as other NATO operators, notably Germany and possibly Turkey. The design traces its history to the shorter ranged but otherwise similar Red Rose design of 1954. In 1958, significantly changed requirements led to it being renamed in spite of the missile itself being very similar overall. The Blue Water missile entered testing in 1962 was generally successful, and praised in the industry. However, when Germany purchased the MGM 29 Sergeant instead of Blue Water, and it appeared Turkey would do the same, the UK government decided to cancel its development instead of continuing to develop a missile that would be used only by their own forces. Red Rose and Blue Water were code names assigned randomly by the Ministry of Supply based on their Rainbow Code system.

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. 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.

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, the RS conversion would add two more of the 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 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 normal semi trailer, which would allow it to be hidden among the motor pool vehicles, but 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 it because it flew at the relatively slow speed of and reached an altitude of only 10000 feet (3048 m), which would allow it to be attacked by SAMs. The final entry was from Bristol, the "RP.15", which, like EE, proposed an adapted version of their existing Red Duster missile, better known as Bloodhound. It is unclear whether this was seriously considered for the role.

In 1956 the Corporal missile had been adopted by the Royal Artillery as a battlefield tactical nuclear missile. This missile was liquid fuelled, thus requiring a large convoy of support vehicles to prepare it slowly for launch. 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 was given the service contract for 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, whilst the PT.428, a rapid firing SAM missile battery also being developed by EE, had a clear military purpose of attacking enemy tactical aircraft. By this time, however, the War Office had been offered the choice of cancelling PT.428 or Blue Water, and decided to cancel the former to save the latter, leaving EE with no ongoing project when both were ultimately cancelled.

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.

This missile was 25 feet (8 m) in length and weighed in at The fuselage was cylindrical with a tapered nose, without the swelling required for previous large diameter nuclear warheads. The control surfaces were small and of typical English Electric form: four rear fins and four daggerboard shaped all moving control surfaces at mid length, indexed at 45° to the tail fins. Guidance was inertial and once aligned before launch, entirely autonomous in flight. The transporter erector launcher was a modified Bedford RL lorry. Additional launch equipment consisted of an early electronic computer, carried in a Land Rover, together with an alignment theodolite. Missiles were normally to be held under cover until a few minutes before launch, whereupon they would be moved to their launch position and the stabilising jacks beneath the lorry placed in position. These launch positions had been surveyed immediately beforehand, so as to be aligned directly at the target. Prior to launch, the launch computer was connected to the missile by an umbilical cable. The same theodolite was used to align the on board gyroscopes before launch and the flight plan settings for the missile were downloaded to it. The launch control vehicle could then move on to prepare another launcher within the battery. Only immediately before launch was the missile raised on its launcher and then fired. Each missile required a remarkably small crew of two, not counting the battery survey team, to operate it.