Red Angel (rocket)

RP-3 ("Three-inch") rockets were used successfully for anti-shipping attacks during World War II. A version with a solid armour piercing warhead replacing the large high explosive model was introduced with the goal of puncturing the hull of U-boats and thus forcing them to remain surfaced where they could be easily attacked. Attacks with this weapon demonstrated an unusual behaviour: a projectile that entered the water short of the target would steer itself upwards on a curving trajectory and travel horizontally. This not only encouraged a more damaging 'wet hit' below the waterline, but it also made targeting easier: the viable target zone on the sea ahead of the target had an apparent height twice that of the hull.[1]

Around 1950, the new Sverdlov-class cruisers caused concern in the Royal Navy, over the fear that the Soviet Navy was expanding into a wide-ranging blue-water navy. A new weapon, Red Angel, was developed to meet this threat. This was larger than Uncle Tom and had a warhead intended to attack the deck armour of Sverdlovs. A salvo of six hits was thought to be sufficient to disable a Sverdlov.[1]

Testing began with a Wyvern aircraft on Lake Alwen in 1954. Several problems were found; the rocket motor failed to ignite on occasions, and the folding fins were slow to extend in cold weather, leading to low accuracy in these conditions. Although a number of tests were successful, solving the various problems took time.[1]

All of these unguided rockets suffered from short effective range, in this case on the order of 5,000 yards (4,600 m), and Royal Navy policy in OR.1057 was that attacking aircraft should not have to approach closer than 10,000 yards (9,100 m) to remain outside the range of the ship's anti-aircraft guns. This OR led to weapons that were longer-ranged and guided, such as the late 1940s 'Nozzle' and the later Green Cheese.[1]

Another issue was that the number of aircraft carriers in RN service was cut back, meaning that the Sverdlovs were going to have to be countered, at least on occasion, by surface ships. This led to the Blue Slug concept, a ship-to-ship version of the Seaslug armed with Red Angel's warhead.[1]

Red Angel was 10 feet 9 inches (3.28 m) long and 11.25 inches (286 mm) in diameter. Overall weight was 1,055 pounds (479 kg) with an 88-pound (40 kg) warhead.[1]

It was first deployed on the Westland Wyvern turboprop, but had always been earmarked for the new jet naval strike aircraft developed in response to the Sverdlov threat, the Blackburn Buccaneer. The high-speed Buccaneer was noted for its rotating bomb bay and internal weapons stowage. This could carry four of the Red Angels.[1]