The Requirement and Early RD Programme

摘要

This paper is based on a paper presented by Peter Jones to The British Rocket Oral History Conference in 2003. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan obtained the agreement of President John Kennedy in the meeting in Nassau in December 1962 to the UK purchase of Polaris. The resulting Polaris Sales Agreement of 6 April 1963 led to the UK building four nuclear submarines, each to be fitted with the US Polaris weapon system and 16 US launch tubes and US Polaris A3 missiles. Each missile carried three re-entry bodies (ReBs). AWRE was given the task of developing, producing and service acceptance of a UK warhead to fit in a US re-entry vehicle. In 1964 and 1965, two UK underground nuclear tests in Nevada provided the necessary nuclear performance data.