Red Beard was the first British tactical nuclear weapon. It was carried by the
English Electric Canberra and the V bombers of the Royal Air Force, and by
the Blackburn Buccaneers, Sea Vixens and Supermarine Scimitars of the Royal
Navy's Fleet Air Arm. Developed to Operational Requirement 1127, it entered
service in 1962 and was withdrawn in 1971.
Design Red Beard was an unboosted fission
weapon that used a composite core. The composite core used both weapons-grade
plutonium and weapons-grade uranium-235, and was intended to minimise the risk of
predetonation that was a feature of all-plutonium designs of that period
with yields larger than 10 kilotons. An added benefit of the composite core was
a more economical use of fissile material. The design was tested twice
during the Operation Buffalo series of nuclear trials at Maralinga in Australia
- first on 27 September and again on 22 October 1956. Although the design
concept of Red Beard was similar to that of the Blue Danube warhead, an
innovative means of implosion meant that its overall size could be significantly
reduced. Its measurements were 3.66 m in length,
0.71 m in diameter and with a weight of approximately 1,750 lb. Two versions
were produced: the Mk 1, with a yield of 15 kilotons, and the Mk 2, with a yield
of 25 kt. The Mk.2 was available in two variants, the No.1 used by high-altitude
bombers, and the No.2 variant that was intended for low-level delivery by the
Toss bombing method, and its "over-the-shoulder" variant referred to
as the Low-Altitude-Bombing-System. Red Beard's RAF and Royal Navy service
designations were: Bomb, Aircraft, HE 2,000 lb MC Mk.1 No.1
Bomb, Aircraft, HE 2,000 lb MC Mk.1 No.2 Bomb, Aircraft, HE 2,000 lb MC Mk.2 No.1
Bomb, Aircraft, HE 2,000 lb MC Mk.2 No.2,
Weighing in at approximately 1,750 lb, Red Beard was considerably lighter than
the official service designation, which was based on the original technical
requirement. A significant improvement on Red Beard's
predecessor, Blue Danube, was in the provision of electrical power for the
bomb firing mechanism and the radar altimeter fuzing. Blue Danube had used 6
volt lead-acid batteries that were unreliable and had to be installed at
the last minute before take-off. There were also potential risks associated
with "stray" electrical discharges to the firing mechanisms which might have
led to accidental detonation. Red Beard used twin ram-air turbines located in
the nose, from which there could be no stray discharges before bomb release.
The air inlet can be seen in the extreme nose. They exhausted through "blow-out"
patches in the nose sides. Until bomb release, the weapon drew electrical
power from the aircraft for heating and pre-heating of the radar fuzes.
Like Blue Danube, the body diameter at 28 in was greater than was desirable
relative to the overall length of 12 ft. To compensate for this stubbiness, and
quickly stabilise the bomb after release, Red Beard was equipped with
flip-out fins that were activated pneumatically, triggered by a lanyard
attached to the aircraft. As with Blue Danube, the fuzing
arrangements were composed of twin radar fuzes that were activated by a
barometric "gate" after release. The barometric gate ensured that the radar
fuzes were switched on in the last few seconds of free-fall to a computed burst
height, and this technique minimised the possibility of radar countermeasures
disabling the radar fuzes. There were back-up contact and graze fuzes to
ensure bomb destruction in the event of a misfire.
None of the variants were capable of being armed in flight - "In Flight
Insertion" of the fissile core. The core was inserted before take-off in a
process referred to as Last Minute Loading. For carrier-borne aircraft,
landing with the armed weapon was forbidden and the aircraft would instead
be diverted to a shore-base. Although the Royal Navy required its Sea Vixen
aircraft to be type-approved for Red Beard carriage as "insurance" against
delays in Buccaneer development, the Sea Vixen never deployed in the nuclear
strike role. Early models were subject to severe environmental limitations,
especially when loaded into Royal Navy Scimitars on exposed aircraft carrier
decks in Northern waters. The Mk.2 variants were better engineered to
withstand extreme conditions, and other than the yield difference, this was the
main area of difference. When the bomb was delivered by low-level
toss bombing, the aircraft was almost always at a lower altitude than the
burst height; so in effect, the bomb was not really "dropped", but was released
and "flew" upwards in a ballistic trajectory, to detonate when it reached
the required altitude. Service
RAF stocks of Red Beard for the Canberra and V-bomber forces totalled 110. Of
these, 48 were stockpiled in Cyprus to meet the UK's commitments to CENTO, 48
were stockpiled in Singapore to meet commitments to SEATO, and the remainder
were located in the UK. Royal Navy stocks are believed, from archived
declassified documents, to total 35 weapons to be shared between five
aircraft carriers and shore-based supply and overhaul infrastructure. The
carriers were thought to each have an air-conditioned storage capacity for
five Red Beard weapons. Before the Red Beard codename was issued
in 1952, it was frequently referred to in official documents as the "Javelin
Bomb", because it was originally conceived as a weapon for the "thin-wing
Javelin bomber", a projected derivative of the Gloster Javelin all-weather
fighter. The designation "Target Marker Bomb" was a euphemism used to disguise
the nature of the bomb, so that its dimensions and weights etc. could be
circulated to aircraft and aircraft equipment designers without compromising
security. It was replaced by the WE.177 in the
early 1970s. John Dolphin
While he was working as Engineer-in-Chief at the Atomic Weapons
Research Establishment John Dolphin worked on the Red Beard trigger
mechanism and in 1959 requested a financial award for his work on the
weapon, but was turned down. His claim was that although it was not his job to
do so, he invented the device that eventually became the trigger for the
bomb but the claim was refused on the grounds that it was within the scope of
his duties See also
Rainbow Codes References
External links Photo of Red Beard
Red Beard Video of Red Beard detonation during
1956 proof tests at Maralinga Photos of British nuclear tests -
includes Red Beard