Editing Blue Steel (missile) (section)

===OR.1132===
On 3 September 1954 the Air Staff issued Operational Requirement OR.1132 for the standoff weapon. This was essentially issued to the [[Royal Aircraft Establishment]] (RAE), whose Guided Weapon Department had been studying such a system for a while and had produced a series of "W weapons" of different layouts. These had been designed to address the problem that the [[Atomic Weapons Research Establishment]] (AWRE) could not guarantee the size of the warhead. Accordingly, the W weapons were designed to the maximum possible size that each of the bombers could carry, {{convert|40|inch}} diameter for the [[Vickers Valiant]] and {{convert|50|inches}} for [[Avro Vulcan]] and [[Handley Page Victor]].{{sfn|Gibson|Buttler|2007|p=107}}

The [[Ministry of Supply (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Supply]] (MoS) did not feel that development should remain at the RAE, and had canvassed the bomber builders asking for comments on the RAE's concepts, considering both a shorter-range and longer-ranged weapon. Avro, having recently given the go-ahead on the 730, appeared cool on the long-range concept and was primarily interested in a short-range weapon of perhaps {{convert|100|mile}} range, which would allow it to avoid the most heavily defended areas. [[Vickers Armstrong]] and [[Handley Page]] were much more interested, proposing longer-ranged weapons that would extend the life of their existing V bomber designs. Handley Page's concept rejected the MoS's shorter range and offered a design of {{convert|500|nmi}} using [[ramjet]] power. However, the Ministry noted that the [[inertial navigation system]] (INS) being developed by [[Elliott Automation]] would not be accurate enough to fly this distance and hit its targets within the desired [[circular error probable]] (CEP).{{sfn|Gibson|Buttler|2007|p=108}}

Vickers, who had worked on the somewhat similar [[Blue Boar (bomb)|Blue Boar]] and [[UB.109T|Red Rapier]] projects would seem like the natural choice for the contract, and planned to have their weapon in operation two years earlier than the other teams. But the Ministry had a cold relationship with Vickers after their [[Red Dean]] efforts. Avro appears to have been selected due to a number of RAE personnel having been hired by the company to form their design department, the Weapons Research Division, including the Chief Engineer, R.H. Fransis. On 4 May 1955 the Ministry of Supply issued the G/Proj/6220/GW35A contract with Avro and assigned it the [[rainbow code]] "Blue Steel".{{sfn|Gibson|Buttler|2007|p=108}}