Q-band H2S

[JFC Fuller]

According to Bernard Lovell in Echoes of War: The Story of H2S Radar an experimental version of H2S was constructed in TRE in 1951 in response to an RAF requirement for blind bombing accuracy of 200 yards whilst flying at 500 knots at 50,000 feet. Does anybody know why this radar system never made it beyond the prototype stage? Was it technical? Financial? A combination of both? Perhaps that that such accuracy was not required in the nuclear role?

Th book is available on Google books and is a fascinating read, the relevant pages are 259-260: http://books.google.com/books?id=tnGo5BywLj8C

According to the Skomer website the system carried the colour code Red Flannel and used long fixed aerials with a narrow azimuth. Any additional information would be much appreciated.

 

[JFC Fuller]

Ok, time for a further proposed British radar navigation/bombing system.

Red Devil was to use Green Satin, the self contained doppler navigation systems actually used by the V-Bombers, and the Red Setter Q-Band SLAR. Apparently this gave a very high resolution but only a short range. Tony Buttlers British Secret Projects: Jet Bombers Since 1949 mentions that the proposed Phase 3 variant of the Victor was to have a fuselage stretch to take two 30ft antennae, i suspect that these were to be Red setter and that the Phase 3 Victor proposal was the only aircraft that I know of that was to be fitted with Red Devil.

This would make sense as it would explain the decision to have the SLAR in addition to the bomb load rather than fitting it in the bomb bay when required as one would for a pure reconnaissance application.

Any thoughts or further information would be much appreciated,

 

[yellowaster]

Red Flannel was an experimental radar to investigate Q-band ground-mapping techniques. I suspect that Q-band was not really suitable for a high-altitude bombing radar. Not very good through rain. I understand that the earlier H2S Mk.6 and the experimental Mk.7, both on K-band (1.25 cm), suffered from this problem.

 

[Maury Markowitz]

Yes, I realize I'm responding to a very old thread.

I read somewhere that the radars in question were intended to allow the RAF to attack SAM missile sites from long-ish range. This was part of an overall battle plan that would see the RAF blasting a way through the Soviet defences in order to make the follow-up strikes by the USAF's B-52 fleet easier. I am not clear on why the US's own B-47's would not have this mission. It's also not clear why you would need this accuracy if this was to be a nuclear strike, and I can't imagine what scenario would have RAF bombers striking targets in Russia without using nukes.

In any event, whatever the mission was, it was found the Mark IV's had enough accuracy to perform it, and development was cancelled.

 

[zen]

Ok so my take on this is....
1. Q-band delivers high accuracy but it's effectivelyrange limited to something like 20km.
2. There was a limited productionof uk nuclear weapons, and this means that conventional weapons would 'do', to blast a path through certain levels of defence to actually deliver the nuke.

3. Probably cancelled due to costs and the development of stand off delivery systems. Blue Steel.