The Rainbow Codes were a series of
code names used to disguise the nature of various British military research projects. They were mainly used by the
Ministry of Supply from the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
until 1958, when the ministry was broken up and its functions distributed among the forces. The codes were replaced by an
alphanumeric
Alphanumericals or alphanumeric characters are a combination of alphabetical and numerical characters. More specifically, they are the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits. An alphanumeric code is an identifier made of alphanumeric c ...
code system.
History
During WWII, British intelligence was able to glean details of new German technologies simply by considering their code names. For instance, when they heard of a new system known as ''
Wotan
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelun ...
'',
Reginald Victor Jones asked around and found that
Wotan was a one-eyed god. Based on this, he guessed it was a
radio navigation
Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determine a position of an object on the Earth, either the vessel or an obstruction. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination.
The basic principles a ...
system using a single radio beam. This proved correct, and the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
was able to quickly render it useless through jamming.
Wishing to avoid making this sort of mistake,
Ministry of Supply (MoS) initiated a system that would be entirely random and deliberately unrelated to the program in any way, while still being easy to remember. Each rainbow code name was constructed from a randomly selected colour, plus an (often appropriate) noun taken from a list, for example:
* "Blue" + "Steel" =
Blue Steel, a nuclear-armed
stand-off missile
* "Green" + "Mace" =
Green Mace, an anti-aircraft (AA) gun.
While most colour and noun combinations were meaningless, some were real names, although quite unrelated to the project they designated. For example, "Black Maria" is also a name for a
police van
A police van (also known as a paddy wagon, meat wagon, divisional van, patrol van, patrol wagon, police wagon, Black Mariah/Maria, police carrier, or in old-fashioned usage, pie wagon) is a type of vehicle operated by police forces. Police vans ...
and the "Red Duster" is a name for the
Red Ensign, the flag flown by British
merchant ship
A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are ...
s. Some code names were not assigned through the official system, but created to sound like it. The
Blue Yeoman
The AMES Type 85, also known by its rainbow code Blue Yeoman, was an extremely powerful early warning (EW) and fighter direction (GCI) radar used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as part of the Linesman/Mediator radar network. First proposed in ea ...
radar is an example, an unofficial name created by combining the names of two other projects,
Blue Riband and
Orange Yeoman
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
* Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
...
.
The names were mostly dropped with the end of the Ministry in 1959. Its functions were split between the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
, the
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...
, and the newly created
Ministry of Aviation
The Ministry of Aviation was a department of the United Kingdom government established in 1959. Its responsibilities included the regulation of civil aviation and the supply of military aircraft, which it took on from the Ministry of Supply.
...
for civil aviation. After the reorganization, projects were mostly named with randomly selected codes comprising two letters and three digits, e.g.
BL755
BL755 is a cluster bomb developed by Hunting Aircraft that contains 147 parachute-retarded high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) submunitions. Its primary targets are armoured vehicles and tanks with secondary soft target (anti personnel) capabiliti ...
,
WE.177
The WE.177, originally styled as WE 177, and sometimes simply as WE177, was a series of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons with which the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) were equipped. It was the primary air-dropped nuclear we ...
. Rainbow codes, or at least names that look like them without being official, have occasionally been used for some modern systems; current examples include the Orange Reaper
Electronic Support Measures
In military telecommunications, electronic support (ES) or electronic support measures (ESM) gather intelligence through passive "listening" to electromagnetic radiations of military interest. They are an aspect of electronic warfare involving ac ...
system and the
Blue Vixen
__NOTOC__
Blue Vixen was a British airborne radar designed and built for the Royal Navy by Ferranti Defence Systems (later, GEC-Marconi), Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the primary radar of later models of the British Aerospace Sea Harrier, replaci ...
radar—the latter most likely so named because it was a replacement for the
Blue Fox radar.
Projects
Black
*
Black Arrow
Black Arrow, officially capitalised BLACK ARROW, was a British satellite carrier rocket. Developed during the 1960s, it was used for four launches between 1969 and 1971, all launched from the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia. Its final fl ...
– a satellite launch vehicle derived from
Blue Streak
Blue Streak or Bluestreak may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Blue Streak'' (album), a 1995 album by American blues guitarist Luther Allison
* Blue Streak (comics), a secret identity used by three separate Marvel Comics supervillains
* Bluestreak (co ...
/
Black Knight
The black knight is a literary stock character who masks his identity and that of his liege by not displaying heraldry. Black knights are usually portrayed as villainous figures who use this anonymity for misdeeds. They are often contrasted with t ...
*
Black Knight
The black knight is a literary stock character who masks his identity and that of his liege by not displaying heraldry. Black knights are usually portrayed as villainous figures who use this anonymity for misdeeds. They are often contrasted with t ...
– a launch vehicle used to test re-entry vehicles for
Blue Streak
Blue Streak or Bluestreak may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Blue Streak'' (album), a 1995 album by American blues guitarist Luther Allison
* Blue Streak (comics), a secret identity used by three separate Marvel Comics supervillains
* Bluestreak (co ...
*
Black Maria
Black Maria may refer to:
Art and literature
* Black Mariah (comics), a character in the Luke Cage comics series
* Black Maria, a character in the manga series ''One Piece''
* ''Black Maria'' (novel), a 1991 novel by Diana Wynne Jones
*''Blac ...
– fighter
IFF
In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, "if and only if" (shortened as "iff") is a biconditional logical connective between statements, where either both statements are true or both are false.
The connective is bicon ...
interrogator
*
Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...
– proposed satellite launch vehicle based on
Blue Streak
Blue Streak or Bluestreak may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Blue Streak'' (album), a 1995 album by American blues guitarist Luther Allison
* Blue Streak (comics), a secret identity used by three separate Marvel Comics supervillains
* Bluestreak (co ...
/
Black Knight
The black knight is a literary stock character who masks his identity and that of his liege by not displaying heraldry. Black knights are usually portrayed as villainous figures who use this anonymity for misdeeds. They are often contrasted with t ...
— a.k.a.
Blue Star
*
Black Rock – surface to surface guided missile
Blue
*
Blue Anchor
Blue Anchor is a seaside village, in the parish of Old Cleeve, close to Carhampton in the Somerset West and Taunton district of Somerset, England. The village takes its name from a 17th-century inn; the bay, Blue Anchor Bay, was previously kno ...
–
X-Band
The X band is the designation for a band of frequencies in the microwave radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some cases, such as in communication engineering, the frequency range of the X band is rather indefinitely set at approxi ...
CW target illumination radar for
Bristol Bloodhound
The Bristol Bloodhound is a British ramjet powered surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s. It served as the UK's main air defence weapon into the 1990s and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the forces of ...
– a.k.a. AMES Type 86
*
Blue Badger – truck-mounted
nuclear land mine
Atomic demolition munitions (ADMs), colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ADMs were developed for both military and civilian purposes. As weapons, they were designed to be exploded in the forward battle a ...
– later renamed
Violet Mist
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Viol ...
*
Blue Bishop – portable 2.5
MW nuclear-powered
electrical generator
In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power (mechanical energy) or fuel-based power ( chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, g ...
– previously
Green Janet
*
Blue Boar –
TV-guided bomb
*
Blue Boy –
VHF speech
scrambling
Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. It is also used to describe terrain that falls between hiking and rock climbing (as a “scrambl ...
*
Blue Bunny – ten-kiloton nuclear mine, see ''
Blue Peacock
Blue Peacock, renamed from Blue Bunny and originally Brown Bunny, was a British tactical nuclear weapon project in the 1950s.
The project's goal was to store a number of ten-kiloton nuclear land mines in Germany. These mines which were intended ...
''
*
Blue Cat
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ob ...
– nuclear warhead a.k.a. ''Tony'' – UK version of US
W44
The RUR-5 ASROC (for "Anti-Submarine Rocket") is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed ...
, a.k.a. ''
Tsetse
Tsetse ( , or ) (sometimes spelled tzetze; also known as tik-tik flies), are large, biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus ''Glossina'', which are placed in their own family, Glos ...
''
*
Blue Cedar – AA No. 3 Mk. 7 mobile
anti-aircraft radar
*
Blue Circle
Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, toget ...
– Sarcastic nickname for concrete ballast fitted to early variants of the
Panavia Tornado ADV
The Panavia Tornado Air Defence Variant (ADV) was a long-range, twin-engine interceptor version of the swing-wing Panavia Tornado. The aircraft's first flight was on 27 October 1979, and it entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 19 ...
in place of the
AI.24 Foxhunter radar, after the concrete company
Blue Circle Industries
Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, toget ...
*
Blue Danube – the first British nuclear weapon in service
*
Blue Devil – T4 optical
bombsight
A bombsight is a device used by military aircraft to drop bombs accurately. Bombsights, a feature of combat aircraft since World War I, were first found on purpose-designed bomber aircraft and then moved to fighter-bombers and modern tactical ...
– drift and
ground speed
Ground speed is the horizontal speed of an aircraft relative to the Earth’s surface. It is vital for accurate navigation that the pilot has an estimate of the ground speed that will be achieved during each leg of a flight.
An aircraft diving ve ...
from
Green Satin
*
Blue Diamond
Blue diamond is a type of diamond which exhibits all of the same inherent properties of the mineral except with the additional element of blue color in the stone. They are colored blue by trace amounts of boron that contaminate the crystalline l ...
– AA No. 7 anti-aircraft radar
*
Blue Diver – ARI (Airborne Radio Installation) 18075 airborne low-band
VHF jammer
Jammer may refer to:
Signal blocking devices
* Radar jammer, a device used in radar jamming and deception
* Radio jammer, a device used in radio jamming
* Radio-controlled Improvised Explosive Device jammer, a counter-IED device
* Mobile phon ...
– against metric frequency radar such as Tall King – fitted to
Victor &
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
* Blue Dolphin –
Blue Jay Mk V for
Sea Vixen – see
Hawker Siddeley Red Top
The Hawker Siddeley (later British Aerospace) Red Top was the third indigenous British air-to-air missile to enter service, following the de Havilland Firestreak and limited-service Fireflash. It was used to replace the Firestreak on the de Havill ...
*
Blue Duck
The blue duck or whio (''Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos'') is a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae endemic to New Zealand. It is the only member of the genus ''Hymenolaimus''. Its exact taxonomic status is still unresolved, b ...
– Anti-Submarine Warfare missile, entered service as
Ikara
Ikara is a town in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, located around 75 kilometres north-east away from the city of Zaria. Ikara as a district consist of five towns which are Ikara, Tudun - wada, Nasarawa, Sabon - Gari, Jamfalan, Kurmin - Kogi, Hay ...
*
Blue Envoy
Blue Envoy (a Rainbow Code name) was a British project to develop a ramjet-powered surface-to-air missile. It was tasked with countering supersonic bomber aircraft launching stand-off missiles, and thus had to have very long range and high-speed ...
– surface-to-air missile to OR.1140, replaced Green Sparker as "Stage 2" SAM
*
Blue Fox – kiloton range nuclear weapon, later renamed Indigo Hammer – not to be confused with the later Blue Fox radar
*
Blue Fox – airborne radar
*
Blue Jacket
Blue Jacket, or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – 1810), was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the preeminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, i ...
– ARI (Airborne Radio Installation) 5880 airborne
Doppler navigation radar fitted to
Hawker-Siddeley Buccaneer aircraft.
*
Blue Jay – air-to-air missile – entered service as
de Havilland Firestreak
The de Havilland Firestreak is a British first-generation, passive infrared homing (heat seeking) air-to-air missile. It was developed by de Havilland Propellers (later Hawker Siddeley) in the early 1950s, entering service in 1957. It was the ...
*
Blue Joker – balloon-borne Early Warning radar – a.k.a.
AMES
Ames may refer to:
Places United States
* Ames, Arkansas, a place in Arkansas
* Ames, Colorado
* Ames, Illinois
* Ames, Indiana
* Ames, Iowa, the most populous city bearing this name
* Ames, Kansas
* Ames, Nebraska
* Ames, New York
* Ames, Ok ...
Type 87
* Blue Kestrel – search radar
* Blue Label –
AMES Type 84
The AMES Type 84, also known as the Microwave Early Warning or MEW, was a 23 cm wavelength early warning radar used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as part of the Linesman/Mediator radar network. Operating in the L-band gave it improved perfor ...
radar
* Blue Lagoon – Infra-red air-to-air detector
* Blue Mercury – Centurion Crocodile flamethrower tank.
*
Blue Moon – nuclear-armed cruise missile project, replaced by
Blue Streak
Blue Streak or Bluestreak may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Blue Streak'' (album), a 1995 album by American blues guitarist Luther Allison
* Blue Streak (comics), a secret identity used by three separate Marvel Comics supervillains
* Bluestreak (co ...
* Blue Oak –
AWRE
Awre () is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Forest of Dean District of Gloucestershire, England, near the River Severn.
Both the parish and the electoral ward include Blakeney, Etloe, Gatcombe, Viney Hill, and Two Bridges ...
Atlas 2 super-computer used for simulation of nuclear explosions
* Blue Orchid – Marconi doppler navigation equipment for helicopters
*
Blue Parrot – ARI 5930
I band automatic contour-following radar for Buccaneer – also known as AIRPASS II (AIRPASS=Airborne Interception Radar & Pilot's Attack Sight System)
*
Blue Peacock
Blue Peacock, renamed from Blue Bunny and originally Brown Bunny, was a British tactical nuclear weapon project in the 1950s.
The project's goal was to store a number of ten-kiloton nuclear land mines in Germany. These mines which were intended ...
– ten-kiloton
nuclear land mine
Atomic demolition munitions (ADMs), colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ADMs were developed for both military and civilian purposes. As weapons, they were designed to be exploded in the forward battle a ...
– also known as ''
Blue Bunny'' and ''
Brown Bunny''; it used the
Blue Danube physics package
Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types:
* pure fission weapons, the simplest and least technically ...
.
* Blue Perseus – flamethrower kit for the Centurion Crocodile tank
* Blue Ranger – Delivery of Blue Steel to Australia
*
Blue Rapier –
Red Rapier – missiles – see
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 (2.27 tonne) conventional warhead within 100 yards of its target at over range while travelling at at .
The con ...
*
Blue Riband – large jamming-resistant radar. Cancelled 1958 and replaced by a smaller version as Blue Yeoman.
*
Blue Rosette
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ob ...
– short-case nuclear weapon bomb casing for reconnaissance bomber to spec R156T, including the
Avro 730
The Avro 730 was a planned Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft and strategic bomber that was being developed by Avro Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF). It had been originally envisioned as a very high-speed aircraft to perform aerial reconna ...
,
Handley Page HP.100,
English Electric P10,
Vickers SP4
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 1 ...
and others.
*
Blue Saga
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ob ...
– ARI 18105 airborne radar warning receiver (RWR) – fitted to
Victor &
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
*
Blue Sapphire –
astro-navigation system – see also Orange Tartan
* Blue Shadow – navigation equipment for Canberra B.16, developed as Yellow Aster.
* Blue Shield – see
Armstrong Whitworth Sea Slug
*
Blue Silk
Green Satin, also known as ARI 5851, was a Doppler radar system developed by the Royal Air Force as an air navigation aid. The system provided direct measures of the drift speed and direction, and thereby allowed accurate calculation of the winds a ...
– airborne
Doppler navigation radar unit with lower speed range than
Green Satin
*
Blue Sky – see
Fairey Fireflash
Fireflash was the United Kingdom's first air-to-air guided missile to see service with the Royal Air Force. Constructed by Fairey Aviation, the missile utilised radar beam riding guidance. Fireflash had relatively limited performance and requ ...
*
Blue Slug
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ob ...
– heavy ship-to-ship missile using
Sea Slug
Sea slug is a common name for some marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are sea snails (marine gastropod mollusks) that over evolutionary time ...
launcher, nuclear or conventional
*
Blue Star – satellite launcher – see
Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...
*
Blue Steel – an air-launched rocket propelled nuclear stand-off missile
*
Blue Stone – Unit 386D ENI (Electronic Neutron Initiator) – nuclear weapon component
*
Blue Streak
Blue Streak or Bluestreak may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Blue Streak'' (album), a 1995 album by American blues guitarist Luther Allison
* Blue Streak (comics), a secret identity used by three separate Marvel Comics supervillains
* Bluestreak (co ...
– a
medium-range ballistic missile
*
Blue Study – automatic blind bombing system for V-bombers
*
Blue Sugar
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ob ...
– air-droppable target marking radio beacon developed by
TRE.
*
Blue Vesta
The de Havilland Firestreak is a British first-generation, passive infrared homing (heat seeking) air-to-air missile. It was developed by de Havilland Propellers (later Hawker Siddeley) in the early 1950s, entering service in 1957. It was the fir ...
– a later version of the
Blue Jay air-to-air missile
*
Blue Vixen
__NOTOC__
Blue Vixen was a British airborne radar designed and built for the Royal Navy by Ferranti Defence Systems (later, GEC-Marconi), Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the primary radar of later models of the British Aerospace Sea Harrier, replaci ...
–
Pulse-Doppler radar for
Sea Harrier FA2
The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical landing/ vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft. It is the second member of the Harrier family developed. It first entered servic ...
*
Blue Warrior (EW) VHF/UHF Jammer countermeasure to use of Radar AA Shells
*
Blue Water
Maritime geography is a collection of terms used by naval military units to loosely define three maritime regions: brown water, green water, and blue water.
Definitions
The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings hav ...
– Nuclear-armed tactical surface-to-surface missile intended for
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
in West Germany. Also see
Red Rose
*
Blue Yeoman
The AMES Type 85, also known by its rainbow code Blue Yeoman, was an extremely powerful early warning (EW) and fighter direction (GCI) radar used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as part of the Linesman/Mediator radar network. First proposed in ea ...
– Early Warning radar, also known as
AMES Type 85
The AMES Type 85, also known by its rainbow code Blue Yeoman, was an extremely powerful early warning (EW) and fighter direction (GCI) radar used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as part of the Linesman/Mediator radar network. First proposed in earl ...
, a component ''
Linesman''. Name created from the "Blue" of Blue Riband and the Yeoman of Orange Yeoman. Potentially non-official name.
Brown
*
Brown Bunny – original, unofficial name for
Blue Peacock
Blue Peacock, renamed from Blue Bunny and originally Brown Bunny, was a British tactical nuclear weapon project in the 1950s.
The project's goal was to store a number of ten-kiloton nuclear land mines in Germany. These mines which were intended ...
Green
* Green Apple – related to ''
Window
A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mat ...
'' for measuring drift at sea
*
Green Archer –
mortar-locating radar
* Green Bacon – experimental anti-aircraft radar for Bofors units
*
Green Bamboo
''Yellow Sun'' was the first British operational high-yield strategic nuclear weapon warhead. The name refers only to the outer casing; the warhead (or physics package) was known as "Green Grass" in Yellow Sun Mk.1 and "Red Snow" in Yellow Sun Mk ...
– "hybrid" nuclear weapon design similar to Soviet
RDS-6s
Joe 4 was an American nickname for the first Soviet test of a thermonuclear weapon on August 12, 1953, that detonated with a force equivalent to 400 kilotons of TNT. The proper Soviet terminology for the warhead was RDS-6s, , .
RDS-6 utilized a ...
* Green Bottle – 1944 device for homing on U-boat radio signals (ARI.5574)
*
Green Cheese
Green cheese is a fresh cheese that has not thoroughly dried nor aged, which is white in color and usually round in shape. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives a reference from the year 1542 of the four sorts of cheese. The first sort is green ...
– nuclear anti-ship missile
*
Green Flash
The green flash and green ray are meteorological optical phenomena that sometimes occur transiently around the moment of sunset or sunrise. When the conditions are right, a distinct green spot is briefly visible above the Sun's upper limb; ...
–
Green Cheese
Green cheese is a fresh cheese that has not thoroughly dried nor aged, which is white in color and usually round in shape. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives a reference from the year 1542 of the four sorts of cheese. The first sort is green ...
’s replacement
*
Green Flax – Surface-to-Air Guided Weapon (
SAGW) or surface-to-air missile (SAM); see
Yellow Temple
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...
*
Green Garland – infrared proximity fuze for
Red Top
*
Green Garlic – Early Warning radar, also known as the AMES Type 80
*
Green Ginger – surveillance radars – combined installation of AMES Type 88 and AMES Type 89
*
Green Granite – thermonuclear warheads: Green Granite (small), and Green Granite (large), both tested at
Operation Grapple
Operation Grapple was a set of four series of British nuclear weapons tests of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 and 1958 at Malden Island and Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the P ...
*
Green Grass – nuclear warhead for
Violet Club
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Vio ...
and
Yellow Sun Mark 1 bombs
*
Green Hammock – low-altitude bomber, Doppler navigation
*
Green Janet – portable, nuclear power plant; see
Blue Bishop
*
Green Light – SAGW or SAM – see
Short Sea Cat
*
Green Lizard
The European green lizard (''Lacerta viridis'') is a large lizard distributed across European midlatitudes from Slovenia and eastern Austria to as far east as the Black Sea coasts of Ukraine and Turkey. It is often seen sunning on rocks or lawns, ...
– tube-launched SAM with variable geometry wings
*
Green Mace – 5-inch rapid firing anti-aircraft gun
* Green Minnow – Radiometer imager
*
Green Palm – ARI 18074 airborne
VHF voice channel jammer with four pre-set channels, replaced in the
Vulcan B2 by the
I band jammer
* Green Salad – ARI 18044 wide-band VHF Homing equipment for the
Avro Shackleton
The Avro Shackleton is a British long-range maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) which was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the South African Air Force (SAAF). It was developed by Avro from the Avro Lincoln bomber, which itself had been a develo ...
.
*
Green Satin – ARI 5851 airborne
Doppler navigation radar unit
*
Green Sparkler – advanced SAM for the "Stage 2" program, became
Blue Envoy
Blue Envoy (a Rainbow Code name) was a British project to develop a ramjet-powered surface-to-air missile. It was tasked with countering supersonic bomber aircraft launching stand-off missiles, and thus had to have very long range and high-speed ...
*
Green Thistle – Infra-red homing system based on the German wartime Kielgerät
*
Green Walnut – blind bombing equipment
*
Green Water
Maritime geography is a collection of terms used by naval military units to loosely define three maritime regions: brown water, green water, and blue water.
Definitions
The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings ha ...
– pilotless interceptor/SAGW
*
Green Willow
Radar, Airborne Interception, Mark 20, AI.20 for short, also known by its rainbow codename Green Willow, was a prototype Airborne Interception radar developed by EKCO for the English Electric Lightning interceptor aircraft. It was ordered as a b ...
–
EKCO
EKCO (from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited) was a British electronics company producing radio and television sets from 1924 until 1960. Expanding into plastic production for its own use, Ekco Plastics produced both radio cases and later domestic plasti ...
AI Mk. 20 Fire Control radar, backup to ARI 5897 AI Mk. 23 Airborne Interception radar for the
English Electric P.1
The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It was capable of a top speed of above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufac ...
fighter
*
Green Wizard – instrument for calibrating anti-aircraft guns by measuring their muzzle velocity
Indigo
*
Indigo Bracket – S-band radar jamming system
*
Indigo Corkscrew –
continuous wave radar, used with the
Bristol Bloodhound
The Bristol Bloodhound is a British ramjet powered surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s. It served as the UK's main air defence weapon into the 1990s and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the forces of ...
and
English Electric Thunderbird
The English Electric Thunderbird was a British surface-to-air missile produced for the British Army. Thunderbird was primarily intended to attack higher altitude targets at ranges up to approximately , providing wide-area air defence for the Army ...
SAMs
*
Indigo Hammer
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
, formerly Blue Fox – nuclear weapon
Jade
*
Jade River – continuous wave radar, developed from
Indigo Corkscrew
Orange
* Orange Blossom – Probably a deliberate mis-identification of the Orange Crop pods fitted to 1312 Flight Hercules aircraft, (Pod-mounted electronic support measures used on the Hercules – maybe).
* Orange Cocktail – Experimental homing radar weapon from 1950s
*
Orange Crop
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
–
Racal
Racal Electronics plc was a British electronics company that was founded in 1950.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Racal was a diversified company, offering products including voice loggers and ...
MIR 2
ESM system for Royal Navy
Lynx and Royal Navy
Sea King (HAS.5 onwards but not Mk 4 "Junglies", who had the
Racal
Racal Electronics plc was a British electronics company that was founded in 1950.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Racal was a diversified company, offering products including voice loggers and ...
Prophet lightweight RWR fitted to some, or to the Royal Navy SAR) helicopters and some Royal Air Force Hercules aircraft.
*
Orange Harvest
Orange Harvest was an Electronic Support Measures, ESM receiver fitted to marine patrol Avro Shackletons during the Cold War.
Orange Harvest was an S band and X band radar warning receiver, capable of giving a directional bearing to surface shi ...
– S and X band warning receiver fitted to
Shackletons
*
Orange Herald
Orange Herald was a British nuclear weapon, tested on 31 May 1957. At the time it was reported as an H-bomb, although in fact it was a large boosted fission weapon and remains to date, the largest fission device ever detonated.
Technical
Oran ...
– large boosted fission nuclear warhead, tested at
Operation Grapple
Operation Grapple was a set of four series of British nuclear weapons tests of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 and 1958 at Malden Island and Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the P ...
in 1957.
*
Orange Nell – short-range surface-to-air missile (SAGW)
*
Orange Pippin – Ferranti, anti-aircraft, fire-control radar
*
Orange Poodle – low altitude, OTHR (Over-the-Horizon) early-warning radar – abandoned
*
Orange Putter
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
– ARI 5800 airborne passive radar warning receiver tuned to Soviet AI radars and fitted to
Canberra and
Valiant.
*
Orange Reaper –
Racal
Racal Electronics plc was a British electronics company that was founded in 1950.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange and once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, Racal was a diversified company, offering products including voice loggers and ...
"Kestrel"
ESM system for Royal Navy
Merlin helicopters
*
Orange Tartan – 'Auto-Astro' automated
star navigation system (day) – see also Blue Sapphire (night).
* Orange Toffee – radar for
Blue Envoy
Blue Envoy (a Rainbow Code name) was a British project to develop a ramjet-powered surface-to-air missile. It was tasked with countering supersonic bomber aircraft launching stand-off missiles, and thus had to have very long range and high-speed ...
*
Orange William – heavy anti-tank missile, canceled, later replaced by ''Swingfire''
*
Orange Yeoman
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
* Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
...
– Early Warning radar & guidance for Bristol Bloodhound SAGW – a.k.a.
AMES Type 82
Pink
*
Pink Hawk – early name for
Fairey Fireflash
Fireflash was the United Kingdom's first air-to-air guided missile to see service with the Royal Air Force. Constructed by Fairey Aviation, the missile utilised radar beam riding guidance. Fireflash had relatively limited performance and requ ...
missile. As this was a "watered down" version of the
Red Hawk, and thus pink, it is an example of Rainbow Codes having some implied meaning, rather than their usual purely deliberately meaningless choice.
Purple
*
Purple Granite – nuclear weapon – see
Green Granite
*
Purple Passion – Sub-kiloton demolition mine project related to
Violet Mist
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Viol ...
.
* Purple Possum –
VX Nerve Agent
VX is an extremely toxic synthetic chemical compound in the organophosphorus class, specifically, a thiophosphonate. In the class of nerve agents, it was developed for military use in chemical warfare after translation of earlier discoverie ...
.
Red
* Red Achilles – flamethrower kit for the CT 25 armoured carrier
*
Red Angel – air-launched anti-ship weapon or "special bomb"
* Red Bacchus – mobile mixing plant for Red Vulcan flamethrower fuel
*
Red Beard
is a 1965 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, in his last collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. Based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, '' Akahige Shinryōtan'', the film takes p ...
– nuclear weapon
* Red Biddy – Infantry platoon anti-tank missile, cancelled 1953
* Red Brick – Experimental continuous-wave target illuminating radar
*
Red Cabbage
The red cabbage (purple-leaved varieties of ''Brassica oleracea'' Capitata Group) is a kind of cabbage, also known as Blaukraut after preparation. Its leaves are colored dark red/purple. However, the plant changes its color according to the pH ...
– Naval radar
*
Red Carpet
A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions, and has in recent decades been extended to use by VIPs and celebrities at formal events.
History
The earliest known reference ...
– X-band radar jammer
*
Red Cat – Air-launched nuclear stand-off missile cancelled 11/54.
*
Red Cheeks
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...
– inertially guided bomb
based on the work of
Tubby Vielle
* Red Cyclops – flamethrower kit for the FV201 tank
*
Red Dean – large air-to-air missile
* Red Devil – experimental blind bombing system using Green Satin and Red Setter radars together
*
Red Drover
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...
– airborne radar – see
Avro 730
The Avro 730 was a planned Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft and strategic bomber that was being developed by Avro Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF). It had been originally envisioned as a very high-speed aircraft to perform aerial reconna ...
*
Red Duster – ''Bristol Bloodhound'' surface-to-air missile
* Red Elsie – AP No. 8 anti-personnel mine, developed jointly with Canada.
*
Red Eye (Redeye) – An American general-purpose infra-red homing missile
*
Red Flag – free-fall nuclear bomb – 'Improved Kiloton Bomb' –
WE.177
The WE.177, originally styled as WE 177, and sometimes simply as WE177, was a series of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons with which the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) were equipped. It was the primary air-dropped nuclear we ...
*
Red Flannel – experimental
Q band H2S
* Red Garter –
Cossor
A.C. Cossor Ltd. was a British electronics company founded in 1859. The company's products included valves, radios, televisions and military electronics. The company was purchased by Raytheon in 1961.
Early history
The story of A.C. Cossor Ltd ...
ARI 5818 airborne
tail warning radar for the
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
, did not enter service
*
Red Hawk – large missile "downrated" to give Pink Hawk which became
Blue Sky
* Red Heathen – early SAM project, became
Red Shoes and
Red Duster
*
Red Hebe
Red Hebe was a large active radar homing air-to-air missile developed by Vickers for the Royal Air Force's Operational Requirement F.155 interceptor aircraft. It was a development of the earlier Red Dean, which was not suitable for launch by the ...
– air-to-air missile, a replacement for
Red Dean
* Red Hermes – FV3702 armoured fuel trailer for flamethrower tanks
* Red Indian – analogue anti-aircraft fire control computer for Bofors L/70 gun.
*
Red King – two-barrel
revolver cannon
A revolver cannon is a type of autocannon, commonly used as an aircraft gun. It uses a cylinder with multiple chambers, like those of a revolver handgun, to speed up the loading-firing-ejection cycle. Some examples are also power-driven, to fur ...
, developed alongside Red Queen. The name is likely not random, but instead a reference to its
Oerlikon factory designation, RK, for Revolver Kanone.
*
Red Light –
X band jammer for V Bombers, entered service as ARI 18146
*
Red Neck – airborne side-looking radar (SLAR), tested on the
Victor a 40 foot long aerial under each wing. Flexing in flight corrupted the resolution. Cancelled 1962.
* Red Planet – infantry platoon anti-tank missile
*
Red Queen – rapid fire 42 mm
revolver cannon
A revolver cannon is a type of autocannon, commonly used as an aircraft gun. It uses a cylinder with multiple chambers, like those of a revolver handgun, to speed up the loading-firing-ejection cycle. Some examples are also power-driven, to fur ...
anti-aircraft gun
*
Red Rapier, Blue Rapier missiles – see
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 (2.27 tonne) conventional warhead within 100 yards of its target at over range while travelling at at .
The con ...
*
Red Rose – short-range, battlefield nuclear missile for the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
–
English Electric – later known as ''
Blue Water
Maritime geography is a collection of terms used by naval military units to loosely define three maritime regions: brown water, green water, and blue water.
Definitions
The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings hav ...
''; cancelled 1962
*
Red Sea (AA)
The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم , translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...
– the AA predictor designed for use with the ''Green Mace'' automatic AA gun
*
Red Setter – experimental side-looking radar for
V bombers
*
Red Shoes – see
English Electric Thunderbird
The English Electric Thunderbird was a British surface-to-air missile produced for the British Army. Thunderbird was primarily intended to attack higher altitude targets at ranges up to approximately , providing wide-area air defence for the Army ...
*
Red Shrimp
Red Shrimp was an airborne high-bandwidth radar jammer fitted to the Vulcan and Victor. The name was one of the Rainbow Codes, its official name was ARI.18076, for Airborne Radio Installation.
Red Shrimp was based on the carcinotron, a new typ ...
– ARI 18076 airborne high-band jammer fitted to
Victor and
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
*
Red Snow
Red Snow was a British thermonuclear weapon, based on the US W28 (then called Mark 28) design used in the B28 thermonuclear bomb and AGM-28 Hound Dog missile. The US W28 had yields of and while Red Snow yields are still classified, declassifie ...
– nuclear weapon
physics package
Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types:
* pure fission weapons, the simplest and least technically ...
– fitted to
Yellow Sun Mk2 and
Blue Steel
*
Red Steer
Red Steer, also known as ARI 5919 and ARI 5952 depending on the version, was a tail warning radar used on the British V bomber force. Built by EKCO, it was developed from the experimental AI.20 radar for the English Electric Lightning. The Light ...
–
EKCO
EKCO (from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited) was a British electronics company producing radio and television sets from 1924 until 1960. Expanding into plastic production for its own use, Ekco Plastics produced both radio cases and later domestic plasti ...
ARI 5919/ARI 5952 airborne
tail warning radar – development of AI 20
Green Willow
Radar, Airborne Interception, Mark 20, AI.20 for short, also known by its rainbow codename Green Willow, was a prototype Airborne Interception radar developed by EKCO for the English Electric Lightning interceptor aircraft. It was ordered as a b ...
– fitted to
Victor &
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
. The name likely refers to Jerry Steer at the RRE.
*
Red Ticket – associated with AI 17 radar
*
Red Top – air-to-air missile developed from the
Firestreak Mk 4
*
Red Tulip – phase coherent radar Moving Target Indicator (MTI)
* Red Vulcan – flamethrower fuel mixture
Violet
*
Violet Banner –
infrared seeker
Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is radi ...
for
Red Top
*
Violet Club
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Vio ...
– nuclear weapon
*
Violet Friend – simple
ABM system ordered under AST.1135.
*
Violet Mist
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Viol ...
– truck-mounted
nuclear land mine
Atomic demolition munitions (ADMs), colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ADMs were developed for both military and civilian purposes. As weapons, they were designed to be exploded in the forward battle a ...
– formerly
Blue Badger. Used the
Red Beard
is a 1965 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, in his last collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. Based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, '' Akahige Shinryōtan'', the film takes p ...
physics package
Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types:
* pure fission weapons, the simplest and least technically ...
.
*
Violet Picture – UHF Homer, built by
Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...
– Fitted to many RAF aircraft.
*
Violet Vision – nuclear warhead for
Corporal
Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...
missile – based on
Red Beard
is a 1965 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, in his last collaboration with actor Toshiro Mifune. Based on Shūgorō Yamamoto's 1959 short story collection, '' Akahige Shinryōtan'', the film takes p ...
Yellow
*
Yellow Anvil
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...
–
nuclear artillery
Nuclear artillery is a subset of limited- yield tactical nuclear weapons, in particular those weapons that are launched from the ground at battlefield targets. Nuclear artillery is commonly associated with shells delivered by a cannon, but in ...
shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
warhead
*
Yellow Aster –
H2S Mk 9A bombing radar, fitted to
V bombers
*
Yellow Barley –
radar warning receiver
Radar warning receiver (RWR) systems detect the radio emissions of radar systems. Their primary purpose is to issue a warning when a radar signal that might be a threat is detected, like a fighter aircraft's fire control radar. The warning can t ...
*
Yellow Duckling Yellow Duckling was an early development of an infrared linescan camera, developed for the detection of submarines during the Cold War. The name is one of the series of British Rainbow Codes.
Origins
Infrared detection systems had been considered ...
– infra-red submarine detector
*
Yellow Feather – missile seeker
* Yellow Fever – fire control system for the Bofors L/70 anti-aircraft gun, comprising a Blue Diamond radar and a Red Indian analogue computer
*
Yellow Gate –
Loral ESM for
E-3D Sentry and
Nimrod MR.2
*
Yellow Jack
The yellow jack (''Carangoides bartholomaei''), also known as coolihoo, is a species of marine fish in the jack family, Carangidae. It is one of only two representatives of its genus present in the Atlantic Ocean, inhabiting waters off the east ...
–
Orange Pippin's radar component
*
Yellow Lemon – Doppler-navigation system for naval aircraft. Valve-based precursor to the transistorised
Blue Jacket
Blue Jacket, or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – 1810), was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the preeminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, i ...
.
*
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...
– mobile tactical control radar for
Bristol Bloodhound
The Bristol Bloodhound is a British ramjet powered surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s. It served as the UK's main air defence weapon into the 1990s and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the forces of ...
– a.k.a. AMES Type 83
*
Yellow Sand – anti-ship missile, possibly a precursor to
Green Cheese
Green cheese is a fresh cheese that has not thoroughly dried nor aged, which is white in color and usually round in shape. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives a reference from the year 1542 of the four sorts of cheese. The first sort is green ...
*
Yellow Sun – nuclear weapon casing
*
Yellow Temple
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...
– nuclear-armed SAGW development of
Red Shoes
*
Yellow Tiger – Target illuminating radar used with the Thunderbird missile.
* Yellow Veil – ALQ-167 pod for Royal Navy Lynx.
Non-Rainbow codes
Several British military related terms have a similar "colour" format to Rainbow Codes, but are not since they do not refer to classified research projects, and some names have been used unofficially. These include:
* Black Banana – unofficial nickname for the
Blackburn Buccaneer, originally named the ''Blackburn ANA'' (Blackburn Advanced Naval Aircraft).
* Black Beacon – The Orfordness Rotating Wireless Beacon, known simply as the Orfordness Beacon or sometimes the Black Beacon, was an early radio navigation system
* Blue Circle – sardonic name for concrete ballast for Buccaneer while awaiting Blue Parrot radar. Also used for
Sea Harrier
The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical landing/ vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft. It is the second member of the Harrier family developed. It first entered servic ...
ballast in place of
Blue Fox radar, and
Tornado F.2 ballast. From the
Blue Circle
Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, toget ...
cement company.
* Blue Eric – improvised
I band ECM jammer against the
Fledermaus gun control radar during the Falklands War. Installed in the
Harrier GR.3
The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is a British military aircraft. It was the first of the Harrier series of aircraft and was developed in the 1960s as the first operational ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft with vertical/short takeoff and ...
's starboard 30mm gun pod.
* Blue Yeoman – unofficial name for an experimental radar made from components of the Blue Riband and Orange Yeoman
*
Green Goddess
The Green Goddess is the colloquial name for the RLHZ Self Propelled Pump manufactured by Bedford Vehicles, a fire engine used originally by the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS), and latterly held in reserve by the Home Office until 2004, and a ...
– colloquial name for Civil Defence
fire pump
A fire pump usually refers to a pressure-increasing component of the water supply for fixed-place fire suppression systems such as fire sprinklers, standpipes, and foam systems. Fire pumps are also a critical component integrated into fire tru ...
*
Green Meat – a 'spoof' SAM programme reported in the 1976
RAF Yearbook
* Green Parrot – unconfirmed low yield nuclear weapon mentioned in a 1981 ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' article by
Duncan Campbell who later claimed that it was "probably" a copy of the US
B57 nuclear bomb
The B57 nuclear bomb was a tactical nuclear weapon developed by the United States during the Cold War.
Entering production in 1963 as the Mk 57, the bomb was designed to be dropped from high-speed tactical aircraft. It had a streamlined casing ...
. The
WE.177
The WE.177, originally styled as WE 177, and sometimes simply as WE177, was a series of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons with which the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) were equipped. It was the primary air-dropped nuclear we ...
has incorrectly been referred to as the Green Parrot by some authors. However Green Parrot was a NATO codename for the Soviet
PFM-1
PFM-1 () is a scatterable high explosive anti-personnel land mine of Soviet and Russian production. It is also known as a Green Parrot or Butterfly Mine. The mines can be deployed from mortars, helicopters and aeroplanes in large numbers; they ...
anti-infantry mine. Green Parrot was also the term for an admiral's barge, traditionally with a green-painted hull.
*
Green Porridge – RAF aircrew nickname for green-tinted
H2S bombing radar display
PPI image in
Valiant,
Victor &
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
*
Red Arrows – RAF display team
*
Red Devils – Parachute Regiment display team
* Red Slab – joke name for a large ballast weight replacing the nose radar in
Avro Vulcan XH558
Avro Vulcan XH558 (United Kingdom military aircraft serials, military serial ''XH558'', civil aircraft registration ''G-VLCN'') ''Spirit of Great Britain'' was the last remaining airworthy example of the 134 Avro Vulcan jet-powered delta winged ...
in its return to flight as a civil display aircraft.
*
Violet Fire –
Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...
light
fire detection system
A fire alarm system warns people when smoke, fire, carbon monoxide or other fire-related or general notification emergency, emergencies are detected. These alarms may be activated automatically from smoke detectors and heat detectors or may also ...
for
Concorde
The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France an ...
engine bays.
See also
*
British military aircraft designation systems
British military aircraft designations are used to refer to aircraft types and variants operated by the armed forces of the United Kingdom.
Since the end of the First World War, aircraft types in British military service have generally been kn ...
*
Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom
*
Rainbow Herbicides
The Rainbow Herbicides are a group of tactical-use chemicals used by the United States military in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Success with Project AGILE field tests with herbicides in South Vietnam in 1961 and inspiration by the Briti ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*Public Record Office, London. TNA AIR 2/17322 E51B (a)
'' Vulcan's Hammer: V-Force Aircraft and Weapons Projects Since 1945''– Chris Gibson – 2011 –
External links
British nuclear weapon history
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Rainbow Codes
Rainbow Codes
Rainbow Codes
United Kingdom defence procurement
Rainbow Codes