Red Hebe

This article is about the British air-to-air missile. For the type of plant with the same name, seeVeronica sect. Hebe.

Red Hebewas a largeactive radar homingair-to-air missiledeveloped byVickersfor theRoyal Air Force'sOperational Requirement F.155interceptor aircraft.It was a development of the earlierRed Dean,which was not suitable for launch by the newsupersonicaircraft. Before progressing much beyond advanced design studies, F.155 was cancelled in the aftermath of the1957 Defence White Paperwhich moved Britain's attention fromstrategic bomberstoballistic missiles.With no other suitable platform, Red Hebe was cancelled as well.

History

Red Dean

Main article:Red Dean

By the lateWorld War IIera each of the British forces had ongoing missile development programmes. Among these was the January 1945 Air Staff Operational Requirement 1056 for anair-to-air missileintended as an anti-bomber weapon. OR.1056 called for a weapon able to attack from any angle, an "all-aspect" design, using eitherradarorinfrared homing,the radar version using the signals from theAI Mk. IX radarbeing used at that time. This project was assigned theMinistry of Supply(MoS)rainbow code"Red Hawk".It soon became clear that Red Hawk was beyond thestate of the artand an interim design was proposed, nicknamed "Pink Hawk". This dropped the all-aspect requirement and reduced it to tail-chase attacks, which were much easier to guide with existing systems. Accepted with the official name "Blue Sky", it entered service in 1956 asFireflash.

Long before Fireflash flew, in 1951 theAir Ministryconcluded that electronics was progressing fast enough to reconsider the all-aspect concept, and issued yet another design under the name "Red Dean", calling for a weapon withactive radar homing.Using active homing meant the missile could be used by any fighter, as it was not linked to the signals from the fighter's own radar - it could even be used byday fighterswithout any radar assistance. This also meant the missile had to carry what was essentially a miniaturized version of anaircraft interception radar,which generally weighted hundreds of pounds, and would additionally need apower supplycapable of producing radar transmissions of sufficient power.

Initially taken up byFolland Aircraftin 1951, chief designerTeddy Pettereventually lost interest in the project and it was taken up byVickersthe next year.Problems with the seeker led to the missile undergoing constant weight growth, eventually reaching 1,330 pounds (600 kg), making it too heavy to fly on most aircraft of the era. It was then targeted for the P.376"thin-wing' Javelinwhich would enter service in the late 1950s.Weight problems with the seeker continued, and in 1955General Electric Company(GEC) proposed a new seeker based ontransistors,which were just emerging. This would reduce the seeker weight from 105 pounds (48 kg) to 90 pounds (41 kg). This could be further reduced to 60 pounds (27 kg) if the system usedsemi-active radar homing(SARH), as this dramatically reduced the power requirements.The result is sometimes referred to as Red Dean Mk. 1.

New design

In 1955, the Air Ministry learned of theTupolev Tu-22supersonicbomber and concluded that bombers flying at Mach 2 would be the next threat to contend with. They realized that even the mildly-supersonic thin-wing Javelin would be unable to deal with this threat effectively, and canceled further development. In place of the Javelin, the Air Ministry proposed their future interceptor needs would be met by faster supersonic designs being considered as part ofOperational Requirement F.155.

Red Dean had been designed for carriage by subsonic aircraft and would only fly for a short time at supersonic speeds after it was launched. On these new aircraft, they would spend long times at supersonic speeds and then get even faster after launch. The materials used for Red Dean were not designed to handle the heat loads from theskin frictionat these speeds, and would not be usable on these aircraft. Accordingly, when Vickers heard of the changes in the aircraft program, they proposed a new missile ofstainless steelgiven the name "Red Hebe".

Red Hebe was similar to the later Red Dean concepts with transistorized seekers. Nevertheless,Ralph Hooperdescribed it as "a development of Red Dean only in the same way that P.1103 is a development of the Hunter."The idea of moving to SARH was rejected as that would require modifications to theAI radarto allow it to produce a continuous signal during tracking, which would not be easily added to theconical scanningarrangement. The small available room in the nose for the radar antenna led to low resolution and thus the need for a large warhead to counteract the low accuracy of the weapon.

As a result of the steel airframe, high required speed, and a huge 150 pounds (68 kg) warhead, Red Hebe emerged as a system with roughly the same weight as Red Dean at 1,330 pounds (600 kg) even with the lighter electronics. Worse, it was even larger, at 17 feet 9 inches (5.41 m) long and reached 22 feet 10 inches (6.96 m) when fitted with aerodynamic fairings intended to reduce drag when being flown on aircraft at Mach 2.5. It was also quite large in diameter at 15 inches (380 mm), although this may have been due to the desire to optionally fit a smallnuclear warhead.Some documentation refers to a "British RP.3", RP.3 being the UK name for the US-developedAIR-2 Genieunguided nuclear rocket. There is speculation that the warhead would be the "Purple Passion" device intended for landmine use.

The new weapon was considered as questionable as Red Dean before it. A significant criticism came from Squadron Leader Poole of the Operational Requirements branch of the Air Ministry. He was sent on a tour of the US to examine their missile programs and returned a report that described the US systems as being much simpler and better developed than their UK counterparts. He describedSidewinderas having less performance than the UK'sBlue Vesta"but much simpler and now in use", while stating Red Hebe was "...still in the piston era "compared toSparrow.He concluded that the US got "more for their money at less than half the weight" and that "Red Hebe will fade out in a few months since [it is] in a different technical age."

There is some indication that Red Hebe was slated to be canceled in any event; during the studies for theBlue Steelthere was some concern thatEnglish Electricwas already overstretched and consideration was given to handing the project to Vickers, as it was assumed they would have little to work on. This was during the period when Red Dean and Red Hebe were still ongoing.Additionally, the Director of Guided Weapons at the Ministry of Supply, John Clemow, held a low opinion of the Vickers team.

Vickers Small Weapon

With the weight of the missile limiting it to only one aircraft design, Vickers once again began a complete redesign to introduce a smaller and lighter weapon. This emerged as the Vickers Small Weapon, of roughly 9 feet 10 inches (3.00 m) length and 675 pounds (306 kg). This made it only slightly larger and heavier than Sparrow, but with an improved seeker. This smaller size reduced performance to the point where it was considered suitable only for "warm" wars where the absolute destruction of the target was not as important as it would be in a European hot war.

Cancellation

The1957 Defence White Paperprepared byDuncan Sandysconsidered the ongoing changes in the strategic outlook. Among its conclusions was that the strategic bombing role would switch from aircraft toballistic missilesby the mid to late 1960s. At the time it was believed that any mission against the UK would be strategic in nature and would use nuclear weapons, and there seemed to be no mission that could not be carried out by sufficiently powerful warheads making up for any lack of accuracy in placement by missiles. In this environment, it was unlikely that shooting down enemy bombers would have any effect on the outcome – even if a bomber-based attack were made, missiles would be sure to follow and the end result would be basically the same.

Sandys identified a period, between 1957 and the mid-1960s in which the bomber remained the primary vehicle of attack and anti-aircraft weapons would still be needed. However, he felt the imminent arrival of theBloodhound surface-to-air missilewould fill this requirement. The Air Staff convinced him that near-term threats like the Tupolev Tu-22 were outside the capability of the Javelin and would arrive before Bloodhound. Sandys relented and agreed to allow theEnglish Electric LightningandRed Top missileto continue development to fill this role, cancelling theBlue Envoylong-range missile and OR.155 as they would all arrive outside this time frame.

Red Hebe no longer had a launch aircraft and was also cancelled. John Clemow, the Vickers critic, personally signed the cancellation.

References

Bibliography

• Gibson, Chris; Buttler, Tony (2007).British Secret Projects: Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles.Midland.ISBN9781857802580.
• Forbat, John (2012).The Secret World of Vickers Guided Weapons.The History Press.ISBN9780752487922.
• Twigge, Stephen (1993).The Early Development of Guided Weapons in the United Kingdom, 1940–1960.Taylor & Francis.ISBN9783718652976.
• Gough, Jack (1993).Watching the skies: a history of ground radar for the air defence of the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force from 1946 to 1975.HMSO.ISBN978-0-11-772723-6.