2-inch RP

With the opening of the Falklands War in 1982, the RAF found the Navy unwilling to allow the SNEB on their ships due to the concern that the powerful radars might set off their electrical primers.

Some early experiments in 1935 and 1936 seemed promising and a new department was set up at Woolwich Arsenal to develop solid fuel rocket motors based on cordite.

[1] During battles in North Africa in early 1941, the Desert Air Force found its weapons were ineffective against German armoured fighting vehicles and a study group under Henry Tizard formed to consider the issue.

As anti-submarine weapons, the RP-3 could penetrate the hull of a U-boat and prevent it from diving, making it an easy target for larger aircraft carrying bombs and depth charges.

[3] In 1944, the German Luftwaffe began operations with the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163, and found that their existing weapons were inadequate for high-speed aircraft.

Tests had demonstrated that five rounds of their newest air-to-air autocannon, the 30 mm MK 108, were needed to destroy a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber.

The low firing rate of this weapon, combined with the very high relative speeds of the aircraft, meant there was only a brief period where the fighter was in range.

The R4M introduced the concept of folding fins, which allowed the rockets to be stored in a compact space in a rack that was mounted flush to the bottom of the wing, or in tubes carried in streamlined pods on hardpoints.

[5] In the post-war era, the R4M, along with many other late-war German weapon projects, was picked up by most of the countries involved in European combat.

[citation needed] The Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm had a significant lack of capability in the immediate post-war era.

[11] A new series of glass reinforced plastic ("fibreglass") launchers made by the newly formed Microcell company were available in 14, 24 and 37-rocket capacities.

[14] A similar set of two pods carrying 22 rockets each was designed for the Lightning, but only offered to foreign customers.

The only well-recorded use of them by the Buccaneer was during the attempt to break up the SS Torrey Canyon in March 1967, when 11 rockets[a] were fired at the massive oil spill in hopes of setting it alight.

The rocket pods from RAF Buccaneers were fitted to the Harriers and after hurried testing, clearance to use them was received on 26 April.

Only a single warhead was used, a high-explosive fragmentation type with 750 g (26 oz) of explosive fired by a simple contact fuse.

[21] The rocket flew at an average velocity of 2,234 feet per second (1,523 mph) and had a listed effective slant range of 1 mile (1.6 km).