Editing Fireflash (section)

===Red Hawk===
In January 1945 the [[Air Ministry]] issued Operational Requirement OR.1056, given the [[Ministry of Supply]] [[rainbow code]] "Red Hawk", for an air-to-air missile. The basic design was based on studies carried out at the [[Royal Aircraft Establishment]] (RAE) on earlier weapons. Their experiments with the manually-guided [[Spaniel (missile)|Air Spaniel]] concept had convinced them that automatic guidance of some sort was required. This led to [[Artemis (missile)|Artemis]] [[semi-active radar homing]] system, and the larger [[Little Ben (missile)|Little Ben]] which used [[beam riding]]. OR.1056 was overall similar to Little Ben, using beam riding along the [[AI Mk. IX radar]] signal as the illumination source.{{sfn|Gibson|Buttler|2007|p=31}}

In 1947, the various ongoing guided weapon projects in the UK were centralized at the RAE. In the immediately following period, a rationalized development program was laid out that called for the development of a [[surface-to-air missile]] (SAM) for the [[Royal Navy]] that became [[Seaslug (missile)|Seaslug]], a similar SAM design for the  [[British Army]] and [[Royal Air Force]] known by the code name [[Bloodhound (missile)#Sea Slug and Red Heathen|"Red Heathen"]],{{efn|Which subsequently diverged into separate Army and RAF projects, Red Shoes and Red Duster respectively.}} the [[Blue Boar (bomb)|Blue Boar]] anti-shipping bomb, and ongoing development of Red Hawk.{{sfn|Twigge|1993|p=163}}

The initial development contract for Red Hawk was released to [[Gloster Aircraft]] in October 1947. They developed what was essentially a [[drone aircraft]] resembling a small swept-wing fighter, which would be carried in a recessed bay under the aircraft and lowered into the airstream before launch. The RAE was unimpressed, and in late 1947 developed their own design.{{efn|Perhaps under the direction of Flt Lt Benson, who had worked on the Spaniel and Artemis projects.{{sfn|Gibson|Buttler|2007|p=31}}}} This called for a smaller weapon using four [[RP-3]] motors for boost which were then ejected, leaving the central projectile to coast onward to the target.{{sfn|Gibson|Buttler|2007|p=31}}