Rainbow Codes

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The Rainbow Codes were a series of code names used to disguise the nature of various British military research projects from after the Second World War until 1958 when they were replaced by an alphanumeric code system.

The Ministry of Supply (MoS) initiated the idea since during the war some German secret projects could be inferred from their code names; for example, that a radio navigation device "Wotan" used a single beam because the Germanic god Wotan was one-eyed. Each code name was constructed from a colour of the rainbow plus a noun taken from a list; for example, "Blue" + "Steel" gave Blue Steel, a British nuclear weapon, "Green" + "Mace" = Green Mace, an anti-aircraft gun.

The names were dropped with the end of the MoS, and their functions were handed over to the Ministry of Defence which started using codes built of two letters and three numbers eg BL755

[edit] Rainbow coded projects

An incomplete list of British Rainbow Code Projects.

Black Arrow - a satellite launch vehicle derived from Blue Streak/Black Knight
Black Knight - a re-entry vehicle for Blue Streak
Black Maria - fighter IFF interrogator
Blue Boar - TV-guided bomb [1][2]
Blue Bunny - see Blue Peacock
Blue Cat - nuclear warhead a.k.a. Tony
Blue Danube - nuclear weapon
Blue Devil - optical bombsight
Blue Diver - ARI 18075 airborne low-band jammer
Blue Envoy - surface to air missile to OR.1140
Blue Fox - see Indigo Hammer - not to be confused with the later Blue Fox radar
Blue Jay - See Fairey Firestreak
Blue Moon - see Blue Streak
Blue Peacock - buried nuclear weapon (land mine)
Blue Rapier, Red Rapier missiles - see UB.109T
Blue Rosette - short-cased nuclear weapon for Avro 730
Blue Saga - ARI 18105 airborne radar warning receiver (RWR)
Blue Sapphire - astro-navigation system
Blue Sky - see Fairey Fireflash
Blue Slug - nuclear ship-to-ship missile using Sea Slug launcher
Blue Steel - an air-launched missile
Blue Stone - electronic neutron initiator (nuclear weapon component)
Blue Streak - an MRBM missile
Blue Vesta - air to air missile
Blue Water - air to surface missile
Brown Bunny - see Blue Peacock
Green Bamboo - nuclear weapon
Green Cheese - nuclear anti-ship missile
Green Flax - SAGW (Surface-to-Air Guided Weapon) - surface to air missile - see Yellow Temple
Green Granite - nuclear weapons - Green Granite (small) & Green Granite (large)
Green Light - SAGW - surface to air missile - see Short Sea Cat
Green Mace - anti-aircraft gun
Green Palm - airborne voice channel jammer
Green Satin - airborne Doppler navigation radar unit
Green Water - pilotless interceptor/SAGW
Indigo Hammer - nuclear warhead - small fission warhead/primary for SAGW missiles
Orange Herald - nuclear weapon
Orange Nell - SAGW - surface to air missile
Orange William - see Swingfire
Purple Granite - nuclear weapon - see Green Granite
Red Beard - nuclear weapon
Red Dean - large air to air missile
Red Drover - airborne radar - see Avro 730
Red Duster - see Bristol Bloodhound
Red Hawk - large missile "downrated" to give Blue Sky
Red Hebe - air to air missile, a replacement for Red Dean
Red Neck - airborne side-looking radar
Red Rapier, Blue Rapier missiles - see UB.109T
Red Shoes - see English Electric Thunderbird
Red Shrimp - ARI 18076 airborne high-band jammer
Red Snow - nuclear weapon warhead
Red Steer - ARI 5919 airborne tail-warning radar
Red Top - air to air missile
Violet Friend - simple ABM system
Violet Vision - nuclear warhead for Corporal missile - based on Red Beard
Yellow Anvil - nuclear artillery shell warhead
Yellow Sun - nuclear weapon
Yellow Temple - nuclear-armed SAGW development of Red Shoes