Blue Boar (bomb)

The Vickers Blue Boar was a family of British air-launched television-guided glide bombs of the 1950s which was cancelled during development. A key role was as an anti-shipping missile. It was to have replaced unguided bombs between 5,000 lb and 10,000 lb, or be equipped with a nuclear warhead. A smaller 1,000 lb version was also developed for testing. The name is a randomly assigned rainbow code.

Целью системы было обеспечить наведение бомбы на расстояние 100 ярдов (91 м) от цели после падения с реактивного бомбардировщика, летящего на высоте 50 000 футов. Он мог маневрировать со скоростью до 3,5G, так что его можно было быстро прицелиться после прорыва облачного покрова на глубину до 10 000 футов. Версии с ядерным вооружением в первую очередь предназначались для обеспечения некоторой дальности полета для запускающего самолета и предотвращения полета над целью. планируя на расстоянии от 50 000 до 60 000 футов (от 15 000 до 18 000 м) от точки старта. В этой роли рассматривалось наведение с помощью радара H2S вместо телекамеры.

Разработка была отменена, когда она оказалась слишком крупной для нового поколения реактивных военно-морских ударных самолетов, в то время как роль в противостоянии с ядерным оружием перешла к Blue Steel с гораздо большей дальностью полета . Противокорабельная роль досталась серии оружия, которое все было отменено, прежде чем, наконец, появилось еще одно управляемое по телевидению оружие, Мартель .

Развитие [ править ]

Низкая точность бомбардировок во время Второй мировой войны вызвала всеобщую озабоченность, и только немецкие люфтваффе убедительно решили эту проблему , представив ряд эффективных планирующих бомб , в частности Fritz-X, которые с некоторым успехом использовались против Королевского флота в 1943 году. В 1946 году штаб авиации опубликовал отчет о контроле над бомбами, который в ноябре 1947 года привел к предложению Королевского авиастроительного ведомства (RAE). ^[2]

Начиная с марта 1949 года RAE выпустила серию технических заметок с описанием такого оружия, и разработка была выиграна компанией Vickers в соответствии с операционным требованием 1059. Барнс Уоллис начал разработку под кодом радуги. name "Blue Boar". Initial design reports suggested a single weapon system could carry between 5,000 and 10,000 lb bombs as their payload, and be able to manoeuvre at 3 to 3.5G at sea level, making them extremely difficult to shoot down. For nighttime use, a second 5,000 lb bomb on the same guidance channels would follow three seconds behind the first, and ignite a series of flares once reaching 10,000 ft altitude, providing illumination for the bomb. An even larger version, Special Blue Boar, could carry up to 20,000 lb, as it was noted that a single larger bomb would be easier to guide than several smaller ones. This was intended for carriage on the emerging V-bomber force. There was also consideration given the guiding the bombs with H2S radar for true blind bombing.^[2]

The design consisted of a cylindrical midsection carrying four large rectangular wings with control flaps at the end of each wing. The wings were stored within the bomb casing and forced outward on launch using air pressure from a small air bottle. An ogive nose cone carried the EMI television camera and fuse, while a small boat-tail rear section contained a stabilized antenna to send television imagery to the launch aircraft and receive commands from it. Using tube-based electronics, most of the midsection of the bomb contained four large electronics boxes, with the warhead in front, just behind the nose section. The autopilot was from Smiths Aviation, and the hydraulics powering the controls were from British Messier. For nuclear-armed versions the warhead would be a modified Blue Danube.^[3]

The bomb would be dropped well before the aircraft reached the target. It was designed to fall at an angle of about 40 degrees above the horizon, and a gyroscopic system was used to produce a "datum" spot in the television signal that represented that desired angle. The television had a square scanning pattern, but only the center was in sharp focus, representing a field of view about 55 degrees wide. On the receiver television, a crosshair was used by the bomb aimer to keep the target aligned with the bomb's line-of-sight. The controls were designed to allow the bomb to be put on target within six seconds of breaking through clouds at 10,000 ft altitude.^[4] This was designed to provide a circular error probable of 100 yards (91 m) when dropped from 50,000 ft altitude.^[5]

Trials were carried out in the UK and Woomera starting in the summer of 1953,^[6] where it was dropped from the Vickers Valiant. The project was cancelled in June 1954,^[a] due to it growing too heavy to be carried by naval aircraft in the anti-shipping role while at the same time the Blue Steel missile provided much longer stand-off range in the strategic role and did not require the launch aircraft to remain in the area for guidance. Vickers had spent about £3.1 million on development and had suggested it be continued as it was almost ready for service.^[3]

The design was later modified for use as the Green Cheese anti-shipping missile. This was essentially a combination of the Blue Boar casing with the radar seeker from the Red Dean air-to-air missile and the Red Beard warhead. This also proved too heavy and was ultimately cancelled.^[3] Ultimately, the role was filled by the Martel, another television-guided weapon.

Only a single example is known to exist today, on display at the Brooklands Museum.^[7]

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Bibliography[edit]

• Forbat, John (2012). "3: Blue Boar Guided Gliding Bomb". The Secret World of Vickers Guided Weapons. History Press. pp. 45–64. ISBN 9780752487922.
• Flintham, Vic (2008). High Stakes: Britain's Air Arms in Action, 1945–1990. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473814936.
• Morton, Peter (1989). Fire Across the Desert: Woomera and the Anglo-Australian Joint Project, 1946-1980. Australian Government Publishing Service. ISBN 9780644060684.