Blue Steel
Hawker Siddeley began development in the late 1950s of the Blue Steel air-to-surface missile with a range of over 100 miles at a speed of Mach 2.5. Blue Steel entered service with No. 617 Squadron (The Dam Busters) in February 1963, equiped with a 1-megaton thermonuclear warhead. As large as a fighter, the missile was 35 feet long with a wingspan of 13 feet and an overall weight of 15,000 pounds.
In 1959, work on the improved Blue Steel 2 (with a 700-mile range and Mach 3+0 speed) was cancelled.
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