Rainbow Codes
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The Rainbow Codes were a series of code names used to disguise the nature of various British military research projects from after the Second World War until 1958 when they were replaced by an alphanumeric code system.
The Ministry of Supply (MoS) initiated the idea since during the war some German secret projects could be inferred from their code names; for example, that a radio navigation device "Wotan" used a single beam because the Germanic god Wotan was one-eyed. Each code name was constructed from a colour of the rainbow plus a noun taken from a list; for example, "Blue" + "Steel" gave Blue Steel, a British nuclear weapon, "Green" + "Mace" = Green Mace, an anti-aircraft gun.
The names were dropped with the end of the MoS, and their functions were handed over to the Ministry of Defence which started using codes built of two letters and three numbers eg BL755
[edit] Rainbow coded projects
An incomplete list of British Rainbow Code Projects.
- Black Arrow - a satellite launch vehicle derived from Blue Streak/Black Knight
- Black Knight - a re-entry vehicle for Blue Streak
- Black Maria - fighter IFF interrogator
- Blue Boar - TV-guided bomb [1][2]
- Blue Bunny - see Blue Peacock
- Blue Cat - nuclear warhead a.k.a. Tony
- Blue Danube - nuclear weapon
- Blue Devil - optical bombsight
- Blue Diver - ARI 18075 airborne low-band jammer
- Blue Envoy - surface to air missile to OR.1140
- Blue Fox - see Indigo Hammer - not to be confused with the later Blue Fox radar
- Blue Jay - See Fairey Firestreak
- Blue Moon - see Blue Streak
- Blue Peacock - buried nuclear weapon (land mine)
- Blue Rapier, Red Rapier missiles - see UB.109T
- Blue Rosette - short-cased nuclear weapon for Avro 730
- Blue Saga - ARI 18105 airborne radar warning receiver (RWR)
- Blue Sapphire - astro-navigation system
- Blue Sky - see Fairey Fireflash
- Blue Slug - nuclear ship-to-ship missile using Sea Slug launcher
- Blue Steel - an air-launched missile
- Blue Stone - electronic neutron initiator (nuclear weapon component)
- Blue Streak - an MRBM missile
- Blue Vesta - air to air missile
- Blue Water - air to surface missile
- Brown Bunny - see Blue Peacock
- Green Bamboo - nuclear weapon
- Green Cheese - nuclear anti-ship missile
- Green Flax - SAGW (Surface-to-Air Guided Weapon) - surface to air missile - see Yellow Temple
- Green Granite - nuclear weapons - Green Granite (small) & Green Granite (large)
- Green Light - SAGW - surface to air missile - see Short Sea Cat
- Green Mace - anti-aircraft gun
- Green Palm - airborne voice channel jammer
- Green Satin - airborne Doppler navigation radar unit
- Green Water - pilotless interceptor/SAGW
- Indigo Hammer - nuclear warhead - small fission warhead/primary for SAGW missiles
- Orange Herald - nuclear weapon
- Orange Nell - SAGW - surface to air missile
- Orange William - see Swingfire
- Purple Granite - nuclear weapon - see Green Granite
- Red Beard - nuclear weapon
- Red Dean - large air to air missile
- Red Drover - airborne radar - see Avro 730
- Red Duster - see Bristol Bloodhound
- Red Hawk - large missile "downrated" to give Blue Sky
- Red Hebe - air to air missile, a replacement for Red Dean
- Red Neck - airborne side-looking radar
- Red Rapier, Blue Rapier missiles - see UB.109T
- Red Shoes - see English Electric Thunderbird
- Red Shrimp - ARI 18076 airborne high-band jammer
- Red Snow - nuclear weapon warhead
- Red Steer - ARI 5919 airborne tail-warning radar
- Red Top - air to air missile
- Violet Friend - simple ABM system
- Violet Vision - nuclear warhead for Corporal missile - based on Red Beard
- Yellow Anvil - nuclear artillery shell warhead
- Yellow Sun - nuclear weapon
- Yellow Temple - nuclear-armed SAGW development of Red Shoes
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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