Scrapbook 2: Jul 1962 — Thor, SNAP, Egypt

MISSILE OBSOLETE BY 1963

By Air Cdre. E. M. DONALDSON, Daily Telegraph Air Staff

THE United States will take over the Russian targets now assigned to the British-based Thor medium-ranged nuclear ballistic missiles when they come off their pads next year. American authorities, disclosing this yesterday, added that “the basis of the British action was financial.”

They suggested the money may be used to strengthen our conventional forces in Europe.

Financial considerations are obviously paramount in any military expenditure. But the reason Britain is to scrap the Thor missile deterrent is because it will be useless by next year.

LIMITED RANGE

Polaris build-up

Thor’s limited range prohibited its use against the heart of Russia from anywhere but European bases. Britain was chosen by America as the only secure European base from secrets and defence points of view.

Russia’s rapid development of devastating intermediate-range nuclear rockets has made Thor obsolete. The Americans say Thor will be out of operation by October next year.

By that time the number of United States atomic submarines with Polaris missiles will have increased from nine to 17. As each submarine carries 16 missiles, the deterrent value will be more than doubled.

In the same period, America’s 6,000-mile range intercontinental ballistic missile force will have increased from the present 81 to more than 480 missiles.

Britain’s military leaders are convinced that conventional forces cannot stop Russian aggression in Europe. Any move to increase conventional forces at the cost of nuclear power will be firmly resisted.

THOR AIRMEN PRAISED

C.-IN-C.’s MESSAGE

By Our Air Staff

The decision to phase out the Thor Force of Bomber Command in no way detracted from the vital role which the force had played in the past, Air Marshal Sir Kenneth Cross, C.-in-C. Bomber Command, said in a message to the four Thor stations yesterday.

“You in the Thor force have maintained a constant vigil day and night for almost four years,” he said. “I am content that history will recognise your devoted service in the cause of peace.”

Mr. Hugh Fraser, Secretary for Air, sent a message of appreciation to Bomber Command yesterday. “The high state of readiness at which the Thor force has been maintained, the record of serviceability sustained and the success achieved with combat training launches reflect the greatest credit on all concerned,” he said.

ROCKETS MAY AID BRITISH SATELLITES

By ANTHONY SMITH, Daily Telegraph Science Correspondent

THE announcement that the 60 Thor rockets, now in eastern quarter of England, are to cease being operational next year has interested various groups in Britain who would like to have them.

At present neither Britain, nor the European Launcher Development Association, has a large rocket capable of working as the first stage of a satellite launcher. Blue Streak’s engines have been tested in Britain, but the rocket has not yet been fired at Woomera.

The Thors are well-tried rockets. Presumably they will be still in first class condition on the day they are disbanded, despite their five years on the airfields of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and East Anglia.

They could be shipped to Australia and used as first stages for launchers. By themselves, despite their 1,500 to 2,000 mile range, they could not launch a satellite.

TELSTAR IN ORBIT

It would be necessary to add at least one extra stage to them before they could orbit anything. The Americans have been using Thors modified in this way recently, and Telstar went into orbit on a Thor-Agena B rocket.

The Minister of Defence, Mr. Thorneycroft, did not say what would happen to Britain’s Thors when he announced that they would no longer be operational. They were all flown to this country, one at a time, in huge transport aircraft.

If Britain is allowed to use the rockets, she could start launching satellites of her own far sooner than intended. The rapid progress with communication satellites, well demonstrated by Telstar, has shown that Britain is in danger of being left out in the cold in this field.

The Americans have not yet demanded a return of the missiles. But, even if they do, there is a case for suggesting they are not returned, but are used instead for the peaceful exploration of space.

THOR BASES IN BRITAIN CLOSE IN 1963

END OF PACT WITH AMERICA

RELIANCE ON V-BOMBERS

By Air Cdre. E. M. DONALDSON, Daily Telegraph Air Staff

THE five-year agreement with the United States to station Thor missiles in Britain is not to be extended and will end during next year. This was announced by Mr. Thorneycroft, Minister of Defence, in the Commons yesterday.

There are 60 Thors in operational readiness in England. Fifteen each are based at Driffield, Yorks, Henswell, Lincs, North Luffenham, Rutland, and Feltwell, Norfolk.

They cannot be fired without United States permission. A senior American officer is stationed at each base with a key to unlock the missile before it can be fired.

Thor’s performance has been considerably improved in the last 12 months. It now has a range of 2,000 miles and carries a two megaton American-made warhead.

It can be fired in less than 15 minutes of a warning. A new version with a solid fuel motor could be fired instantaneously.

The system cost the United States £68 million and Britain spent £12 million on the sites, communications and training of personnel. The sites now cost a total of between £4 and £5 million a year to keep operational.

V-BOMBER POWER

Stand-off bombs

Britain is too small and vulnerable to a surprise and concentrated nuclear attack and too near potential enemies to rely on a static deterrent.

This means that Britain will now rely completely on V-bomber force for the deterrent after next year. This can get airborne and out of trouble in about 90 seconds after an alert and can be recalled should it be a false alarm

RAF Bomber Command has re-equipped with the Mark 2 version of the Vulcan and Victor. Blue Steel, the stand-off bomb, is now becoming operational.

This bomb has a range of several hundred miles and can be launched from outside heavily defended areas. It flies at several times the speed of sound at very high altitude.

Russia would have no defence against Blue Steel until at least by 1965 by which time Sky Bolt, the airborne ballistic missile will be ready for Bomber Command. There is no known defence against this missile, which can be fired from anywhere.

THOR’S FUTURE

American use

The Minister’s statement disclosed that Thor now has a two megaton warhead. This must mean that Blue Steel and Sky Bolt will have at least as much destructive power. This is double what has been estimated up to now.

The future of the Thor missiles still has to be decided. They will probably be returned to America.

The Americans have a continued use for them as satellite launchers. It was the Thor missile that took the “Rainbow” bomb aloft during the recent Pacific tests.

Nuclear Heating Planned for Moon Travelers

WASHINGTON (AP)—The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) is developing a nuclear-powered heating unit for spacecraft landings on the often-frigid moon.

AEC Chairman Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg said commission scientists were working on a special generator in the so-called SNAP series—that is, systems for nuclear auxiliary power. Earlier versions are in use in some satellites as sources of power for instruments.

The one under development is called SNAP-11. It’s designed for a special job in the civilian space agency’s Surveyor Program — the venture aimed at exploring the moon’s surface with unmanned spacecraft beginning in 1964.

Seaborg said the generator, using radioactive curium-242 as fuel, would be designed to act as a continuous source of electrical power for radios and other instruments aboard a Surveyor craft. Also, he said, it “will be able to provide heat to the Surveyor craft during the cold lunar night.”

He made only a brief reference to the project in a talk prepared for a meeting of the Washington, D.C., post of the American Ordnance Association, but the implications are these:

Each Surveyor craft will carry four television cameras designed to snoop on the moon’s surface and transmit pictures back to earth.

And, without SNAP-11 on the job, the TV cameras and other sensitive scientific gear would have tough sledding in an environment where the night temperature stands at around 240-degrees below zero Fahrenheit — and the length of the lunar night is equal to 14½ earth days.

While Seaborg did not say so, the implication was clear that some kind of SNAP unit would also be employed to keep things comfortable inside manned spacecraft when they land on the moon.

Elsewhere in his talk, Seaborg said he believed nuclear energy as a propulsion source — as distinguished from an auxiliary electrical source — could “provide the most feasible means of accomplishing long voyages in space and many other of our more ambitious space missions.”

Speaking of the nation’s Rover Project — aimed at developing nuclear-powered rocket engines — Seaborg said it was reasonable to expect the first flight test during 1966.

My rockets, by Nasser

EGYPTIANS tested four single-stage rockets in the Western Desert yesterday, then President Nasser told reporters they could land “just south of Beirut”—apparently meaning Israel.

The rockets, he said, were made entirely in the United Arab Republic, and they had plenty, or else they “would not have been able to spare four for tests.”

Egypt fires a rocket

From Our Own Correspondent CAIRO, Saturday.

At a rocket base in the western desert President Nasser to-day watched the launching of Egypt’s first rocket. It reportedly reached its target area 400 miles away.

Journalists grouped six miles from the firing base saw four rockets fired. Pres. Nasser came from the launching site to tell the journalists that the rockets were Egyptian made and were in mass production.