Blue streak
The Blue Streak (German: Blue Stripe ) was a British medium-range missile . The model was never introduced into the troops, but later served as the launch stage of the " Europa " rocket .
background
The British planners initially only intended bombers as a means of launching their nuclear arsenal . At the end of the 1950s, however, it became clear that ballistic missiles would be the main impact force in the future . There was a political desire among the authoritative British public for an independent deterrent to ensure the country's respectable international status. A mere takeover of American nuclear weapons and missile technology was rejected because this would have further reinforced the undesirable impression that the former world power Great Britain was too dependent on the USA.
In April 1954, the Americans proposed a joint program to develop a ballistic missile. The program stipulated that the United States an ICBM km (ICBM) with a range of 9,300 and the British with American support a medium-range missile developed (MRBMs) of 3,700 km range. This proposal was accepted in August 1954 as part of the Wilson-Sandys Agreement of cooperation, information sharing, and joint programs. The decision was influenced by the expected increase in quality in British missile development due to the longer American experience in missile technology.
The de Havilland Aircraft Company won the tender to build the missile. It was to be powered by a Rolls-Royce RZ2 liquid engine based on the American Rocketdyne S3D engine. Suppliers included the Sperry Gyroscope Company, which built the control system, while the warhead was manufactured by the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment in Aldermaston . To test the missile, the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Test Center was built on the RAF Spadeadam base in Scotland .
As there was no test area available in Great Britain due to the limited space, a launch site was set up in Woomera , Australia .
The program came under fire when the cost rose from a planned £ 50 million in early 1955 to £ 300 million in late 1959. The British missile program has been slow compared to the progress made in American or Soviet missile programs.
Cancellation of the program
Political resistance in the British Parliament grew and eventually the blue streak program was canceled due to lack of deterrent effect, as the missile would have been too vulnerable as a second strike weapon . Frozen propellants were intended for the Blue Streak. The filling could only be stored in the rocket for a short time without icing. Refueling the missile took 15 minutes, making it unusable for a quick counter-attack. The missiles were intended to be stationed in underground silos designed to withstand a one megaton atomic explosion at a distance of 800 m (0.5 miles). These missile silos would have protected the missiles from a first strike while they were being refueled. However, finding suitable places to build these silos turned out to be extremely difficult and construction only began at the RAF Spadeadam base in Cumbria .
The decision to delete it was announced by the House of Commons on April 13, 1960 , and it generated social outrage. By then, around £ 84 million had gone into the project. Australia was also not impressed by the termination of the program, as it had invested a lot in the Woomera test site.
The British government continued to hope for the Anglo-American Skybolt missile until the US canceled the program when its own ICBM program was mature. Instead, the British acquired the Americans' Polaris system for their newly created nuclear submarine force .
Civil program
After the cancellation of the military project Blue Streak, they did not want to give up the entire program because of the sums already invested. Blue Streak should therefore serve as the first stage of the planned British satellite carrier " Black Prince ". The second stage should be a version derived from the " Black Knight " test rocket. The engine used for launching into orbit was supposed to burn hydrogen peroxide and RP-1 kerosene . The Black Prince project never got beyond planning.
As part of the soon to follow ELDO (European Launcher Development Organization) program, they wanted to develop a rocket that the Blue Streak also used as a first stage. The second and third stages, however, should come from France and Germany. As part of the ELDO program, the Blue Streak was successfully tested three times at the test site in Woomera, Australia.
During the tests in 1964, patrols in the target area picked up a group of indigenous people who had not yet had any contact with western civilization. The incident was portrayed in the documentary film "The day the whites came" (original title: Contact ) from the perspective of the various parties involved.
Despite eight attempts to launch the complete multi-stage rocket, the French and German components turned out to be too unreliable, and so this program was also canceled. The last start was in Kourou , which is in French Guiana .
Data
- Takeoff weight: 90 tons
- Diameter: 3.05 m
- Length: 18.75 m
- Span of the fins: 3.35 m
- Weight of the warhead: 1,360 kg
- Range: 4,000 km
- Propulsion: RP-1 kerosene / liquid oxygen
See also
literature
- Robert H. Paterson: Britain's Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: From Before the V-Bomber to Beyond Trident , Verlag Routledge, 2012, ISBN 1136310444 ( online )
- Bernd Leitenberger: European launchers Volume 1: From the diamond to the Ariane-4 - Europe's rocky road to orbit , Verlag BoD - Books on Demand, 2013, ISBN 3848297841 ( online )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stephen Robert Twigge: The Early Development of Guided Weapons in the United Kingdom, 1940-1960 , ISBN 3718652978 , page 201 ( online )
- ↑ Kevin Madders: A New Force at a New Frontier: Europe's Development in the Space Field in the Light of Its Main Actors, Policies, Law and Activities from Its Beginnings Up to the Present , Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 0521030226 , page 26 ( online )
- ↑ The day the whites came ( Memento from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), broadcast on Arte on May 2, 2014 (53 minutes), original title: Contact , director: Dean Bentley. Retrieved May 13, 2014.