Black Rock (missile)

At the end of World War II, the British Army's Guided Weapons Committee had developed a list of seven projects to consider in the post-war era. Among these were a range of nuclear armed weapons intended to provide coverage over short, medium and long range. Given the general assumption that another war was at least 10 years off, and the generally poor economy, little work on these systems was carried out until the opening of the Cold War.^[1]

By 1954 the plans had been firmed up. The short-range role was given to Yellow Anvil, a small warhead that could be shot from large conventional artillery. This project was subsequently cancelled. The medium and long range roles were to be filled by missiles. English Electric won development contracts for both, which the Ministry of Supply gave the names "Red Rose" and "Black Rock" respectively in August 1956.^[1]

Black Rock did not progress beyond the initial design study. There is no formal decision on record, but observers suggest that the range of the weapon made it overlap its duties with a role that the Royal Air Force considered its own domain.^[1][a]

Not all was lost for the team, as they were given a development contract for Red Rose in November 1954. This weapon went through several rounds of development before emerging in a slightly longer-ranged air-mobile form known as Blue Water. This was later canceled.^[1]

• Gibson, Chris; Buttler, Tony (2007). British Secret Projects: Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles. Midland. ISBN 9781857802580.
• 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. ISBN 978-0-11-772723-6.