With roughly the same role and range as Corporal, the solid-fuel Blue Water was far simpler to use and would be significantly easier to support in the field.
By this time, it was decided that the short-range mission was to be filled by a new nuclear artillery shell, Yellow Anvil, leaving only the two longer-range designs.
English Electric (EE) won the initial contract for a design study on the long range weapon, which became known as Black Rock under the Ministry of Supply's Rainbow Code system.
The project was abandoned, with observers suggesting it was due to its role overlapping with the Royal Air Forces deep strike mission which they considered their own.
Leslie Bedford, Director of Engineering at EE's Stevenage division, initially proposed adapting their Red Shoes surface-to-air missile (SAM) for this role.
[3] Given the much heavier 1,000 pounds (450 kg) warhead compared to the one used in the anti-aircraft role, the RS conversion required extra thrust for takeoff.
Like Red Shoes, the missile was mounted on a transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) towed by a Bedford RLHC truck and then raised to about 45 degrees for launch.
7 gun laying radar to accurately measure its trajectory during launch and compare that to a pre-computed path and send corrections via radio.
The initial design was to make the TEL look like a normal trailer and haul it as a semi-trailer, which would allow it to be hidden among motor pool vehicles.
Although initially interested, the Army eventually decided against it because it flew at the relatively slow speed of Mach 1.3 (1,590 km/h; 990 mph) and reached an altitude of only 10,000 feet (3,000 m), which would allow it to be attacked by SAMs.
[4] There was a clear requirement for a missile that would combine the range of the Corporal, the ease-of-use and rapid reaction of Honest John, and a new guidance system with higher accuracy than either.
EE had won the contract for servicing both of these missiles in the field, and it was no surprise when the Army turned to them to consider a proposal to fill a new Red Rose.
For launch, the trailer was dropped to the ground and the TEL backed up and used hydraulic rams to lift the missile to vertical and sit it on the pad.
Sergeant was solid-fuelled and generally comparable to Blue Water, although it was more complex and slower to operate and, like Corporal, still required a train of semi-trailer vehicles.
[15] The programme was cancelled on 10 August 1962, as the UK government, whilst still wishing to purchase the missile, was no longer willing to fund the entire development costs itself.
Blue Water was, to a large degree, a replacement for long-range artillery, a role that was easily fulfilled by the RAF's TSR-2, as long as those aircraft were available to the Army on a timely basis.
[17] This suggestion is backed by public comments at the time of the cancellation; "there are plenty of nuclear weapons in Europe already, and that TSR.2 could cover many of the targets the army had in mind for Blue Water".
[18] Solly Zuckerman, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the incoming Minister of Defense Peter Thorneycroft, was not asked for his opinion on the system.
While I recognized that PT.428 was highly ambitious from a technical point of view, it made more sense to spend such money as was available on a system that had some ostensible military purpose, rather than on one that I thought had none.
In contrast, the PT.428, a rapid-firing SAM missile battery also being developed by EE, had a clear military purpose of attacking enemy tactical aircraft in any war situation, nuclear or not.
[12] A number of references claim that a version of Blue Water was designed for air-launch by the TSR-2 strike aircraft in the stand-off attack role.