Blue Danube (nuclear weapon)
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Blue Danube was the first operational British nuclear weapon. It also went by a variety of other names, including Smallboy, the Mk.1 Atom Bomb, and OR.1001, a reference to the Operational Requirement it was built to fill. The bomb was designed as the primary armament of the V bomber force, and their bomb bays were designed specifically to hold Blue Danube.
Blue Danube was based on Hurricane, the first British fission device (which was not designed nor employed as a weapon), tested in 1952. Blue Danube added a ballistically shaped casing to the existing Hurricane physics package, with four flip-out fins for stability. It initially used a plutonium core, but was later modified to use a composite plutonium/U-235 core and a version was also tested with a uranium-only core. It had a nominal yield of 15 kt, but various versions existed with yields up to 40 kt.
Blue Danube was declared operational in November 1953. No. 1321 Flight RAF was established at RAF Wittering in April 1954 as a Vickers Valiant unit to integrate the Blue Danube nuclear weapon into RAF service. Only about 20 were produced, with each being essentially custom-made. Production was terminated in 1958, and the bomb went out of service in 1962.