UB.109T
UB.109T, better known as Red Rapier, was a British cruise missile project calling for a system able to deliver a 5,000 lb conventional warhead within 100 yards of its target at over range while travelling at at.
The concept dates to an October 1950 study for a Short Range Expendable Bomber, essentially an updated V-1 flying bomb. At the time, the Royal Air Force bomber fleet was propeller driven and not expected to be able to survive encounters with Soviet jet fighters. Looking for a way to make pinpoint tactical attacks, the Telecommunications Research Establishment developed a new radio navigation system that provided the required accuracy. To reach the desired range, the V-1's pulsejet was replaced with small turbojets. Proposals from Bristol and Vickers appeared interesting and received development contracts under the rainbow code names "Blue Rapier" and "Red Rapier" respectively.
That year, intelligence reports suggested the Soviets were contemplating an attack on NATO around 1953. On returning to power in 1951, Winston Churchill gave the project "super priority", and Red Rapier was selected to move forward. Air launches from B-29 Washington bombers over Woomera began in 1954. By this time the threat of imminent Soviet attack had passed and the RAF's new jet bombers were entering service. These had the performance to carry out the daytime precision role. The project was cancelled on 30 September 1954. Several of the testing systems developed for the program were shared with Vickers Blue Boar project, which was cancelled around the same time.
After the project ended, there was some interest in using the Blue Rapier design as a decoy missile to aid the V bomber force penetrate Soviet defences, but this was abandoned in favour of improved electronic countermeasures.
History
RAF concerns
The first specifications for jet powered strategic bombers for the Royal Air Force emerged in 1946 and several proposals were selected for development. By 1949 these were still years off, and the RAF's primary heavy bomber was the Avro Lincoln, an updated version of the mid-war Avro Lancaster. As these lacked the range to easily attack Russia, an order for 88 B-29 Superfortresses was placed and entered RAF service as the "Washington". This was strictly a stopgap move while they awaited the arrival of the jets.In 1947, the Soviet Union publicly introduced the Tu-4 Bull, a reverse engineered version of the B-29. In 1948, the RAF carried out a series of tests against the Washingtons to develop interception tactics against the Tu-4. The Gloster Meteor and de Havilland Vampire fighters proved to be able to attack the bombers with relative ease. It was already well known that the Soviets were introducing jet fighters of their own, which suggested the RAF's bombers would soon be at equal risk. While the new jet powered bombers would address this problem, they were still not expected to be available in numbers until the mid-1950s.
In late 1950, there was growing alarm that the Soviets would attempt some sort of attack on NATO in the next three years. If this occurred during the critical period before the switch to jet power, the RAF would have limited ability to counter the Soviet forces by air. Whilst the strategic mission could still be carried out at night with relative impunity, the long-range daytime tactical role appeared extremely dangerous. Tests in 1952 concluded that it would be "extremely difficult for Bomber Command to devise any tactics which would reduce these losses within acceptable limits."
SREB, UB.109T
The Air Ministry felt the only possible solution that might be available in a short time was an unmanned expendable bomber, an updated V-1 flying bomb. The V-1 was a low-accuracy weapon designed to attack cities. To replace bombers in the day role, where attacks would be against point targets like bridges and railway yards, accuracy would have to be greatly improved. The concept was known as the "Short Range Expendable Bomber", or SREB.The initial call for proposals was sent in October 1950 under the name UB.109T, for "unmanned bomb". It was initially sent to Avro, Bristol Aeroplane, de Havilland and Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. Later, Fairey, Gloster and Saunders-Roe were added, along with an unsolicited entry by Boulton Paul. Of these, the Bristol and Vickers entries seemed interesting enough to send out operational requirement OR.1097 on 17 December 1950.
Bristol's entry, the Type 182, was based on the swept wing planform from the Folland Gnat, with a plastic fuselage and a V-tail. It would be powered by a new Bristol Siddeley engine, the BE.17 of about. This entry was assigned the rainbow code "Blue Rapier".
Vickers entry, returned on 18 January 1951, was much more like the original V-1 with straight wings and a conventional three-part tail control section. It would be powered by three Rolls-Royce Soar engines of, one each at the tip of the three tail control surfaces. This was assigned the code name "Red Rapier".
For the guidance system, the Telecommunications Research Establishment proposed an updated version of the war-era Oboe blind-bombing system in which two ground-based radar-like systems would simultaneously take distance measurements to determine the location of the missile in flight, calculate any needed corrections, and then send them to the missile's autopilot. They originally called the system "feed back Oboe", but later named it "TRAMP".
Development
On Winston Churchill's return to power after the October 1951 general election, he was apprised of the issues that led to SREB. He ordered the project be given "super priority". After a number of detail changes, Vickers learned they were going to be declared the winner of the contract. This would be the company's first entry into the guided weapon market. They proposed to build a dozen -scale versions as the Vickers Type 719 for air-launch tests from the Washingtons to test flight and guidance. The full-scale version would be known as the Type 725.As the missile airframe was entirely conventional, the company was able to begin development using their own funding while Rolls-Royce did the same for the Soar engines. The guidance system was entirely new, and the company would not be able to afford to develop it on its own. At a meeting with Robert Cockburn of the Ministry of Supply in July 1952, it was agreed to begin the development of the missile while the MoS would supply funding for the development of the guidance systems. This led to the formation of a new Guided Weapons Department at Vickers Weybridge. The funding was slow in coming, with an actual agreement not reached until August 1953, and the final contract for £450,000 on 30 October 1953.
Testing
While they waited for funding of the guidance system, Vickers began airframe development and drop tests of the sub-scale 719's. Development of the new Range AI at Woomera was underway for another Vickers project, Blue Boar, and was largely complete by 1952. This smaller range was suitable for testing the 719, while the full-scale 725 would move to a newly developed Range E starting in 1955.For the 719 tests, the airframes were slung under the rear bomb bay of the Washington on a trapeze system that required the removal of the bomb bay doors. The entire flight was carried out under radio control, and extensive telemetry sent back to the ground.
To recover the system, a radio command caused three parachutes to deploy and then separate the nose section. The nose had a metal spike that dug into the ground, leaving the fuselage standing vertically above the ground so it could be easily seen by recovery crews. The system was successful to the point that some 719's survived up to five test flights, and the spike concept was then used to test Blue Boar as well.
In one case the recovery command was sent in error, causing the parachutes to deploy on the still-attached portion while the nose section separated and nearly hit a nearby P-51 Mustang operating cameras. The parachutes caused the B-29 pilot to be thrown forward into his seat belts, and then wrapped around the tail section of the aircraft, but the aircraft was able to land without problem.
Cancellation
Delayed by up to two years by the slow funding of the guidance system, tests were still being carried out in August 1954 when the whole concept was called into question by the imminent arrival of the Vickers Valiant. The Valiant started as another solution to the late arrival of the jet strategic bombers, with roughly the same performance as the original 1946 contract but carrying a smaller bombload and slightly shorter range. The RAF was much more interested in manned bombers than unmanned and was perfectly happy to cancel the project. Vickers was also not particularly upset to lose the project given they won the bomber contract. Valiant would go on to be a great success.Work stopped on 30 September 1954, with a formal cancellation in 1955. The final payouts on the guidance development did not occur until September 1957. Blue Boar was cancelled around the same time, leading to the closure of Woomera's Range AI.