A report on Seaslug (missile), Thunderbird (missile) and Rainbow Code

Seaslug Mk. II missile
Thunderbird II at Imperial War Museum Duxford
Seaslug on display at Wickenby Aerodrome, Lincolnshire, UK
Thunderbird II at Imperial War Museum Duxford
Test firing from the trials ship HMS Girdle Ness (A387), circa 1961.
A Thunderbird I missile minus finned-boosters, a museum exhibit at the Midland Air Museum, England.
The Seaslug launcher mounted on the quarterdeck of HMS Glamorgan, circa 1972
Thunderbird missile (front)
The firing of the first Seaslug test missile from HMS Girdle Ness (A387). This version is based on the RAE's early GPV, and retains the rear-mounted boosters before they moved forward on the "long round".
Colourful display of Thunderbird II airframe in Anti-Aircraft Museum, Tuusula, Finland. Note the changes to the main fins.
Map with Seaslug operators in blue
Missile rear end connector details. The Artillery Museum of Finland, Hämeenlinna.
Thunderbird at RAF Museum Cosford

From their work the LOPGAP experimental design emerged, short for "Liquid Oxygen and Petrol Guided Anti-aircraft Projectile".

- Thunderbird (missile)

As a new project, it was assigned a name under the newly-introduced MoS rainbow code, "Red Heathen".

- Thunderbird (missile)

Blue Shield – see Armstrong Whitworth Sea Slug

- Rainbow Code

This meant that large stabilising fins as used on contemporary missiles in service with the Royal Air Force (Bloodhound) and the British Army (Thunderbird) were not required.

- Seaslug (missile)

Indigo Corkscrew – continuous wave radar, used with the Bristol Bloodhound and English Electric Thunderbird SAMs

- Rainbow Code

The Seaslug Mark 2 was based on the aborted Blue Slug programme to develop an anti-ship missile using the Seaslug missile and guidance system.

- Seaslug (missile)
Seaslug Mk. II missile

1 related topic with Alpha

Overall

Blue Envoy

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Blue Envoy (a Rainbow Code name) was a British project to develop a ramjet-powered surface-to-air missile.

Two designs were entered for the Stage 1 missile contract, English Electric's Red Shoes and Bristol Aerospace's Red Duster.

They started the New Guided Missile Program, or NIGS for short, to replace the existing Seaslug missile on the County-class destroyers with a missile of much higher performance and a fire control system and radar that could track multiple targets, similar to the modern Aegis Combat System.