Do you mean a model or the real thing? 😀

Model unfortunately 😡

There is a small model of a site at the Thrope Camp visiors centre at Woodhall Spa, showing the layout of the 222 Squadron site there from 1960 -1964. (32 Airfix Bloodhound kits on that one)

The problem with doing the real thing is that there are only two sites in the UK where I know you could do it, Misson near Finningly and at Woolfox Lodge, next to the A1 between Wittering and Cottesmore (and the problem with Misson is that you would have to move a lot of ex army land rovers and other vehicles first). The other problem is that most of the equipment, bar some missiles and launchers where scrapped in 1963/64 (The majority of the missiles had the explosives, fuel and secret bits removed and were burnt on the airfield’s were the sites were located.).

A Standard RAF Bloodhound Mark 1 Air Defence Missile (ADM) Squadron (the term SAM Squadron not being used until 1962) consisted of Two Fire Units and a number of support facilities. Each Fire Unit consisted of a Launch Control Post building, a Work Services Building, Two Type 83 target Illuminating radars (made up of a Antenna Trailer and a Display cabin), 16 launchers and Launcher Plant Assemblies (LPA), plus cable and air pipe ducting.

The Launch Control Post (LCP) was the heart of the Fire Unit and was manned up a Launch Control officer and two operators. Each operator was responsible for the operation for one half of the Fire Unit, which was divided into two Sections. The sections were known by the manufacturer as A and B sections. The Equipment in the LCP consisted of the LCO’s control desk, the A and B Section operator control positions and a number of electronics racks that were used to prepare the missile for launch. The equipment racks were again separated into A and B sections and in the whole one section controlled one TIR and 8 Launchers to the right hand side of the fire unit and the other the TIR and 8 launchers to the left.

Each TIR, as noted was made up of two trailer mounted cabins. The antenna trailer contained the main radars. Note I say two as the Type 83 was made up of a pair of radar Transmitter / Receivers that both transmitted and received through the same parabolic dish assembly. The lower frequency (S-band) system was used to acquired the target (the lower frequency giving a wider field of view). After that system had acquired the target and locked on, the higher frequency (X-band) system would switch in to provide a much narrower field of view (Beam width in radar man speak), that was used for fine target tracking and target illumination for the missile(s).

An operator manned the display cabin, and he steered the radar onto the target under lamp order control form the Section operator in the LCP. When the radar had acquired the target. The radar operator would switch in auto tracking and just monitor the systems, until required to engage another target. The operator in the LCP, on command of the LCO, would run up the missiles on his section and carry out the required preparation for launch. Most of this was automatic and mainly consisted of tuning the missile’s radar receivers to match the frequency and Pulse Repartition Frequency of that section TIR. (Each TIR transmitted a different frequency and PRF to the TIR’s near it. This was used to ensure that each missile would home on the target that was being illuminated by its TIR, and not onto another target being illuminated by another section on the Squadron.

The 8 launchers were turned on to the firing bearing and the dish was steered to point at the target. (The launcher control system was fitted with equipment that stopped the missiles from being fired on certain bearings. These bearings were known as Taboo zones, and covered areas were you did not want the missiles spent boost motor casings to land. The LCP equipment would offset the launchers to an angle that would allow the dish on the missile to track the target during the missiles boost phase, when the missile was essentially a ballistic object.)

The missile was fitted with a twin channel radar receiver, one picking the radar transmitter pulse up on an aerial mounted at the rear of the missile and the other receiver was fed by from the dish at the front. The rear channel was locked in frequency and PRF to its TIR, and the forward dish was locked on to the target. When the missile was fully run up, the target was within the missiles fuel range, the Signal to Noise ratio on the forward channel was strong enough, and the dish control system was automatically tracking the target, The equipment in the LCP gave the operater the Free to Fire indication, and the fire button could be pressed.

When this happened, the ramjet igniters were fired and two seconds later the missile boosts were going as well and it was missile away. Each section could fire salvos of up to four missiles at one target at a time. The Work Services Building provided stand by power and pressurised air for missile electronics cooling. This air was piped to the launcher Plant assemblies for each launcher. The LPA cooled the air and feed it to the launcher and on to the missile. The LPA also provided pressurised hydraulics oil to the launcher and on to the missile to pressurise the missiles hydraulics system and provided oil pressure to run the missiles hydraulic motor generator that powered the missiles electronics. The launcher supported the missile and was turned by an electrical motor via a servo system linked to the equipment in the LCP. The other buildings on the site contained missile servicing equipment and bays, fuelling areas, explosive areas for fitting the warhead, ramjet igniter and boost motors, plus the usual admin and security buildings.

The layout of a Fire Unit is shown, plus a photo of the site at Misson (and one of the firing pads actually has a Bloodhound Mark 1 on It.) photo used with permission of site owner.

I’ve got photos of the LCP and WSB at Woolfox Lodge, that I will post at a later date.

Well Nuff said about the Raytheon Patriot on a Bloodhound thread! Sadly I don’t think the RAF is ever going to return to the days of proper big SAM systems anytime soon.

I think the actual term will be never, as the RAF are canning Rapier as well in two years time (all the batteries are going to the Army). However the RAF will be still involved in the Command and Control (Which was the reason for them going into the SAM business in the first place).

If the Lottery win comes in BIGVERN1966 I think you can probably think bigger than a model kit! There are still a few complete Bloodhound battery’s in various museums which could be obtained for enough pennies. Maybe you could buy a SA2 Guideline as well to allow an interesting contrast.

If the Lottery win happens, I would like to start a Model kit company that would product some decent kits for me to build in all of that spare time that I would have to kill, like 1-32 RAF Phantom FG1/FRG2, 1-32 Scale RAF Buccaneer S2, 1-32 Scale Sea Vixen, 1-72 RAF Valiant, 1-72 scale Shack AEW 2, and all of those other British aircraft that nobody else will touch, as well as the Bloodhounds. However I do know of a big green Bristol Dog that would become a Big White Bristol Dog (it lives near and empty bunker) if the balls come in.

Thanks for the Pathe link I will enjoy looking at those.

P.S. Do you have anything to do with the bhmk2.net site?

🙂 What do you think? 😉 🙂

Yes, that’s the one! weighs a ton (not literally but you have to lift it in yourself, and it was about as much as I could carry), then takes several hours to tune up – switch on to full power and “pop”, there she blows, back to start all over again – after you’ve drained the water cooling system, of course. Never seen so much waveguide in all my life before or since, and murderous to tune!
No scale on the photo, but those klystrons were about 18 inches high and pretty solid metal.
Thanks for reviving more memories, BigVern, I will have to go to Switzerland soon (was that where the photo came from?)

Yep they are not light, I’ve only carried one once and that was into a museum from out the boot of somebody’s car (well, Corkscrew’s car actually). As well as weighing a lot, be advised, don’t wear a watch when moving it or your wrist will be stuck to it (The thing is fitted with a very powerful magnet).

The photo was taken at the Gubel Bloodhound Air Defence Guided Missile Position BL-64 ZG (BLOODHOUND FLIEGERABWEHR LENKWAFFENSTELLUNG BL-64 ZG) in Switzerland. (The BL-64 was the Swiss designation for Bloodhound Mark 2 and the ZG stands for the canton in which the site is located (in this case Zug). The museum is run by MHSZ (they have a web site (in German)) and is unfortunately only open on certain days of the year and you have to book your visit first (or you may get there and find the place shut, as if they don’t have a tour booked, they don’t open).

OK, BigVern, but I assumed the kit would be a Mk 2, the only (operational) Bloodhounds I ever saw!

No Offence intended, Papa Lima, I never knew about it either, until I started digging back in 2001 (most, if not all the T83 were scrapped). The Airfix kit was advertised in RAF Flying Review as new back in 1961, a bit before Bloodhound 2 became operational. However Type 87 kit will happen if I win the big one on the Lottery (£8 mill plus), As well as a T86 (To keep Corkscrew happy) and a decent large scale BH 2 kit in plastic (Trumpeter, you have done an SA-2 and a SA-6, what about a Bloodhound 1 and 2). However, I would kill for the big 1-24 Scale Frog Bloodhound mark 1 kit (I would love to known what happen to the moulds for that one).

Considering Patriot was probably the only thing on the table bar designing a completely new system it almost sounds like the standard was set too high to make it impossible to choose a replacement within the requirement thus saving the MOD a bag full of money.

That the problem with the RAF, they always want the world with a system, or not at all. TSR2, Eurofighter, Etc, Etc. Saying that Patriot was in essence a point defence weapon until PAC 3 was developed. The failure to buy Land Dart was because of money (or more accurately the total lack of it). However in both cases the RAF really wanted a SAM with the largest area coverage, outwards and upwards, that would somewhere near to Bloodhound, at least in horizontal coverage.