The Bristol Bloodhound was one of the first British surface-to-air missile systems, developed to protect key national assets. It served with the Royal Air Force through-out most of the Cold War.
A contract was placed in 1947 with the Bristol Aeroplane Company to develop a surface-to-air missile system, initially known as “Red Duster”, it was soon re-named Bloodhound. Bristol designed and developed the missile hardware and Ferranti Limited provided the radar guidance and control electronics. After ten years in development, which included test firings at the Woomera Missile Testing Range in Australia, the first Bloodhound Mk.1 missile was handed over to the Royal Air Force in 1958. The Bloodhound was used to protect key national assets, such as the V- bomber bases, which at the time held Britain’s strategic nuclear deterrent role.
The Bloodhound Mk.1’s radar proved to be very susceptible to enemy jamming and performed very badly against low-flying targets, so an up-grade development programme was undertaken, resulting in the Bloodhound Mk.2. The Mk.2 first entered RAF service in 1964 with a more powerful radar and engines.
In 1970, when the Royal Navy’s Polaris submarines assumed the nuclear deterrent role, all Bloodhound systems were withdrawn from service and either placed in storage or transferred to RAF Germany, where they were used in the airfield defence role. Following a re-appraisal of the perceived threat of low-level attack, the Bloodhound was removed from storage and re-entered service on the 1st July 1976.
The last Bloodhound missile squadron stood down in July 1991, ending over 30 years of service with the RAF. It was replaced in the surface-to-air role by the smaller more mobile Rapier missile.
