The
Hawker Siddeley (later
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...
) Red Top was the third indigenous British
air-to-air missile
The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back)
An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...
to enter service, following the
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 ...
and limited-service
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 ...
. It was used to replace the Firestreak on the
de Havilland Sea Vixen
The de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen is a British twin-engine, twin boom-tailed, two-seat, carrier-based fleet air-defence fighter flown by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm during the 1950s through to the early 1970s. The Sea Vixen was designed by ...
and later models of the
English Electric Lightning
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 manufa ...
.
Originally designed as an upgraded version of the Firestreak, Red Top emerged as a much more capable weapon, with roughly double the range, a more sensitive seeker giving limited all-aspect capability, and an even larger warhead than the already-large one in Firestreak. In its primary role as an anti-bomber weapon fired at medium and high altitudes, it offered a significant improvement in overall performance.
Red Top was originally intended to replace Firestreak outright, but carrying the missiles on the Lightning required additional area to be added to the Lightning's
vertical stabilizer
A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, s ...
for stability at high speed. For this reason, Firestreak continued to be used on older models of the Lightning. Both missiles passed out of service in 1988 when the last of the Lightnings retired.
Development
Improved Blue Jay
Even before the original
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 fir ...
entered service, improvements were being studied to increase its performance. Still known by its
rainbow code
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 until 1958, when the ministry was broke ...
"Blue Jay", Blue Jay Mk. II introduced an improved seeker and more powerful motor known as Magpie II. Mk. III derated the motor to limit acceleration when launched from new supersonic interceptors in order to avoid overheating due to aerodynamic friction. Neither project was proceeded with.
Blue Vesta
In late 1954, 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 ...
received intelligence about new Soviet supersonic bomber designs. In January 1955 they issued
Operational Requirement F.155
Operational Requirement F.155 was a specification issued by the British Ministry of Supply on 15 January 1955 for an interceptor aircraft to defend the United Kingdom from Soviet high-flying nuclear-armed supersonic bombers.
Discussion about th ...
for a new
interceptor aircraft
An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are cap ...
capable of defeating these bombers, preferably at long range. Along with it was another requirement, OR.1131, for an all-aspect missile that would allow attacks from the front quarter and thus avoid having to chase the bombers as was required with the tail-aspect Blue Jay Mk. I. De Havilland responded with Blue Jay Mk. IV, which was later given its own rainbow code, "Blue Vesta".
Blue Vesta adopted the PbTe seeker of Mk. II and further upgraded the motor to the new Magpie III. To handle the aerodynamic heating issues, the fins were made of steel rather than aluminium, and featured cut-away sections to keep the rear portions of the surfaces out of the Mach cones, a feature they referred to as "mach tips".
Work on Blue Vesta was curtailed after 1956 as the
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...
(RAE) concluded that the closing speeds of two Mach 2+ aircraft would be so rapid that the missile would have no chance to be launched while it was still within the range of its seeker. They suggested moving to the much larger
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
-guided
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 ...
, although some low-level work on Blue Vesta's underlying technologies continued.
Red Top
![English Electric Lightning F6, UK - Air Force AN1103896](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/English_Electric_Lightning_F6%2C_UK_-_Air_Force_AN1103896.jpg)
F.155 was canceled in the aftermath of the release of the
1957 Defence White Paper, as
Duncan Sandys
Edwin Duncan Sandys, Baron Duncan-Sandys (; 24 January 1908 – 26 November 1987), was a British politician and minister in successive Conservative governments in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a son-in-law of Winston Churchill and played a key r ...
noted that it would not be in service before new Soviet
ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...
s had rendered the need for manned interceptors moot. This argument was successfully countered by 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 ...
, which pointed out that the
Tupolev Tu-22
The Tupolev Tu-22 ( NATO reporting name: Blinder) was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with the Soviet military in the 1960s.
The aircraft was a disappoint ...
"Blinder" would be in service in 1962 resulting in a several-year gap where the RAF had no effective response.
It was decided to proceed with the development of the
English Electric Lightning
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 manufa ...
largely because it was already close to being complete. But even its Mach 2 speed would offer marginal performance over the Blinder and a tail-chase against this plane would be difficult to perform. Blue Vesta was reactivated in July 1957 to provide an all-aspect weapon for Lightning and allow head-on attacks. For security reasons, yet another rainbow code was assigned in November 1957 and it became "Red Top".
Firestreak's valve-powered electronics were replaced by
transistor
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink).
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...
ized versions, which were smaller and greatly improved reliability. More importantly, they no longer required active cooling, which in Firestreak had been accomplished with an aircraft-mounted system using
ammonia
Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...
, presenting a ground-handling safety issue. Removing the ammonia bottles and all of the plumbing for the cooling systems freed up room in the electronics section and the aircraft-mounted weapon pack.
Elimination of the cooling for the electronics also had the side-effect of removing the cooling for the seeker head, which had been used to improve its performance. A new cooling system using highly filtered air replaced the ammonia. For Red Top, the all-aspect
lead telluride
Lead telluride is a compound of lead and tellurium (PbTe). It crystallizes in the NaCl crystal structure with Pb atoms occupying the cation and Te forming the anionic lattice. It is a narrow gap semiconductor with a band gap of 0.32 eV. It occurs ...
(PbTe) seeker developed for Blue Vesta was replaced by a much less expensive
indium antimonide
Indium antimonide (InSb) is a crystalline compound made from the elements indium (In) and antimony (Sb). It is a narrow- gap semiconductor material from the III- V group used in infrared detectors, including thermal imaging cameras, FLIR systems ...
(InSb) system known as "Violet Banner". This seeker lacked the sensitivity of the PbTe model and did not offer general all-aspect capability; while it worked against supersonic targets warmed by skin friction, it would not work against subsonic targets and required a tail-aspect in these cases. This loss in performance was offset to some degree by increasing the
field of view
The field of view (FoV) is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment. In the case of optical instruments or sensors it is a solid angle through which a detector is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation.
Human ...
from 30 to 60 degrees, allowing the fighter much greater tactical freedom.
In contrast to Blue Vesta, which retained most of the original Firestreak physical layout, Red Top significantly rationalised the design. The fuselage was straightened, removing the boat-tail layout of the Firestreak. Previously the Magpie motor was in a bottle in the centre of the missile, and its exhaust reached the rear through a long tailpipe. The warhead was wrapped around the pipe, but that left too little room for the control fin actuators, which were instead controlled from nose-mounted actuators using long pushrods.
In Red Top, the smaller electronics package allowed the warhead to be moved forward, leaving room for the control actuators to be mounted directly on the fins and thus removing the need for the pushrods. Moving the actuators to the rear, along with the air bottle that powered them, still took up much less room than the warhead, allowing the rocket motor to be made larger by extending it rearward. This resulted in significantly higher performance than the original design.
With the warhead moved forward and the guidance electronics now taking up less room, the warhead was enlarged to 31 kg (68.3 lb) from Firestreak's already prodigious 22.7 kg (50 lb). It also used an
expanding-rod warhead in place of the earlier blast fragmentation type. This move also left room at the rear of the fuselage for one of the two rows of the IR
proximity fuse
A proximity fuze (or fuse) is a fuze that detonates an explosive device automatically when the distance to the target becomes smaller than a predetermined value. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such as planes, missiles, ships at sea, an ...
, which were formerly positioned just in front of the mid-mounted wings. This gave the missile an improved view of its targets. The new "Green Garland" fuse required smaller rectangular windows, compared to the Firestreak's large triangular windows, further simplifying the layout.
The Red Top was much faster
[Boyne, Walter J, ''Air Warfare: an International Encyclopedia, Volume 1'']
pub ABC-CLIO Inc, 2002, p267. and had greater range and manoeuvrability than the Firestreak, and its
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 ...
enabled a wider range of engagement angles. "Unlike modern
990s
The 990s decade ran from January 1, 990, to December 31, 999.
Significant people
* Al-Qadir
* Mahmud of Ghazni
* Pope John XV
* Pope Gregory V
Pope Gregory V ( la, Gregorius V; c. 972 – 18 February 999), born Bruno of Carinthia, was the ...
missiles, Red Top and Firestreak could only be fired outside cloud, and in winter, skies were rarely clear over the UK."
[Black, Ian, ''The Last of the Lightnings'', pub PSL, 1996, , p141.]
Almost cancelled
Although Red Top was a relatively straightforward upgrade to Firestreak, Sandys almost cancelled it as well. He felt that Firestreak would be acceptable during the short period before the
Bloodhound Mk. II SAM entered service in the early 1960s and eliminated the need for
interceptor aircraft
An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are cap ...
altogether. The
Air Staff argued this point, ultimately convincing him that Red Top's head-on attack profile against new Soviet supersonic bombers known to be in development was an urgent requirement.
At a February 1958 meeting of the Controller of Guided Weapons and Electronics, the group earmarked Red Top for both Lightning and the
Fleet Air Arm
The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...
's
de Havilland Sea Vixen
The de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen is a British twin-engine, twin boom-tailed, two-seat, carrier-based fleet air-defence fighter flown by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm during the 1950s through to the early 1970s. The Sea Vixen was designed by ...
. It was expected that Red Top would offer a dramatic leap in performance for Sea Vixen, as its enlarged motor significantly improved its performance when launched subsonically, the relative improvement being less when launched from a supersonic Lightning. There was also some discussion of mounting four Red Top on
Blackburn Buccaneer, likely the B.112 version that had been proposed to replace Sea Vixen for long-duration
combat air patrol
Combat air patrol (CAP) is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft. A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, ...
.
Independently, in 1959 Jon Fozard of
Hawker Aircraft
Hawker Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer that was responsible for some of the most famous products in British aviation history.
History
Hawker had its roots in the aftermath of the First World War, which resulted in the bank ...
also considered using Red Top on the
Hawker Siddeley P.1127
The Hawker P.1127 and the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA.1 are the British experimental and development aircraft that led to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first ''vertical and/or short take-off and landing'' ( V/STOL) jet fighter-bomber.
Devel ...
. The concept fit the aircraft with a more powerful engine, added the
AIRPASS
AIRPASS was a British airborne interception radar and fire-control radar system developed by Ferranti. It was the world's first airborne monopulse radar system and fed data to the world's first head-up display. The name is an acronym for "Air ...
radar from the Lightning, and carried a pair of Red Top missiles.
Testing and service
![Hawker Siddeley Red Top missile](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Hawker_Siddeley_Red_Top_missile.jpg)
Red Top testing began using the new fuselage layout with the original Firestreak faceted nosecone and leftover Magpie III motors from the Blue Vesta program. Ten such lash-ups had been fired by June 1959. Guidance tests with the new motor and seeker were carried out from an
English Electric Canberra
The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havil ...
beginning in early 1960 and firing from the Lightning in September 1961.
The Red Top entered service on both the Lightning and Sea Vixen in
1964. It remained in service until the final retirement of the Lightning in
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
. Unusually, the missile that the Red Top was intended to replace – Firestreak – also remained in service on the Lightning until 1988. This was because Red Top's larger wing area required the Lightning to have a larger fin to maintain stability at high speeds. Newer models of the Lightning were modified for Red Top, leaving Firestreak on the older models that were already in service.
Further upgrades
While the development of Red Top was being carried out, another adaptation of the original Firestreak was being considered to produce a
semi-active radar homing version that would allow a single airframe to be converted from IR to radar by changing the nose section. Initially known as Blue Jay Mk. V, this became "Blue Dolphin", but this was cancelled in 1958.
A longer-ranged Red Top Mk. 2 was also proposed, replacing the Linnet rocket with a
liquid fuel rocket
A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid propellants. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high specific impulse (''I''sp). This allows the volume of the propellant ta ...
running on MADI/RFNA, likely the de Havilland Spartan.
Phantom debate
When plans began to introduce the
McDonnell Douglas Phantom in UK service
The United Kingdom operated the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II as one of its principal combat aircraft from 1968 to 1992. The UK was the first export customer for the Phantom, which was ordered in the context of political and economic difficu ...
, the issue was raised about the inclusion of Red Top on that platform. It was agreed from the start that the primary weapon for this platform would be the
AIM-7 Sparrow, but the choice of a secondary weapon was more contentious, with arguments being made for both Red Top or the
AIM-9 Sidewinder
The AIM-9 Sidewinder (where "AIM" stands for "Air Intercept Missile") is a short-range air-to-air missile which entered service with the US Navy in 1956 and subsequently was adopted by the US Air Force in 1964. Since then the Sidewinder has prov ...
. Those favouring the Red Top, mostly within the Ministry of Defence, pointed to its much higher performance against supersonic targets, especially in frontal engagements where it could be fired at ranges over under favourable conditions. It also had roughly double the maximum engagement angle, when radar cued, which gave the interceptor improved tactical freedom on their choice of approach.
In contrast, the Director of Surface and Amphibious Warfare (DSAW) noted several problems. Integrating the missile with the Phantom's radar would require modifications to the aircraft and this was ruled out for budgetary reasons. This would mean that the missile would have to be locked on using its own seeker, which would greatly limit the angles that it could be fired at. In these situations, it had roughly the same firing angles as the Sidewinder. If radar cueing was added, then it would also suffer from the same problems that Sparrow would in terms of
electronic countermeasures
An electronic countermeasure (ECM) is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar, or other detection systems, like infrared (IR) or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting info ...
or a radar failure on the aircraft, which was the entire argument for including a secondary IR-based weapon. That being the case, the cost of Red Top, at £18,000 had little advantage over the Sidewinder, at £3,500 to £3,900. Additionally, Red Top was heavier, especially if one considered the mounting system, which would reduce the loiter time of the aircraft. Although some Red Top from the Sea Vixen fleet could be salvaged, the cost of buying additional missiles to fill out the larger fleet of Phantom aircraft would cost as much as simply buying a complete set of Sidewinder.
These arguments won the day and the Phantom carried Sidewinder in service.
Former operators
![Red Top operators](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Red_Top_operators.png)
;
*
Kuwait Air Force
The Kuwait Air Force ( ar, القوات الجوية الكويتية , al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Kuwaitiya) is the air arm of the Armed Forces of Kuwait. The Air Force headquarters is located at Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base, with the remaining f ...
;
*
Royal Saudi Air Force
The Royal Saudi Air Force ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْجَوِّيَّةُ الْمَلَكِيَّةْ ٱلسُّعُوْدِيَّة, Al-Quwwat Al-Jawiyah Al-Malakiyah as-Su’udiyah) (RSAF) is the aviation branch of the Saudi Arabia ...
;
*
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) and ...
*
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
,
Fleet Air Arm
The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...
See also
*
Rainbow Codes
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 until 1958, when the ministry was bro ...
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Top (Missile)
Cold War air-to-air missiles of the United Kingdom
Air-to-air missiles of the United Kingdom
Military equipment introduced in the 1960s
Hawker Siddeley