Blue Peacock, renamed from Blue Bunny and originally Brown Bunny, was a British
tactical nuclear weapon
A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territ ...
project in the 1950s.
The project's goal was to store a number of ten-
kiloton
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be (). It is the approximate energy released in the det ...
nuclear land mines in Germany. These mines were intended to be placed on the
North German Plain and detonated by wire or an eight-day timer in the event of Soviet invasion from the east.
Design
Blue Peacock was designed after the free-falling
Blue Danube and weighed 7.2 long tons (7,300 kg). A total of two firing units were built: the casing and the warhead. Due to its large steel casing, it had to be tested outdoors in a flooded gravel pit near
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...
in Kent.
Since the bomb would be unattended, anti-tampering devices were also used.
The casing was pressurized, and pressure and tilt switches were added.
The warhead could be detonated via three methods: a wire located away, an eight-day timer, or anti-tampering devices. Once armed, Blue Peacock would detonate ten seconds after being moved, if the casing lost pressure, or if it was filled with water.
Project history
The project was developed at the
Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment (RARDE) at
Fort Halstead in
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
in 1954.
In July 1957 the
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
ordered ten Blue Peacocks for use in Germany, under the cover story that they were atomic power units for troops in the field. In the end, though, the
Ministry of Defence
A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...
cancelled the project in February 1958. It was judged that the risks posed by the
nuclear fallout
Nuclear fallout is residual radioactive material that is created by the reactions producing a nuclear explosion. It is initially present in the mushroom cloud, radioactive cloud created by the explosion, and "falls out" of the cloud as it is ...
and the political aspects of preparing for destruction and contamination of allied territory were too high to justify.
Chicken-powered nuclear bomb
A technical problem is that during winter, the temperature of buried devices can drop quickly, creating a possibility that the mechanisms of the mine will cease working due to low temperatures in the winter.
Various methods were studied to solve this problem, such as wrapping the bombs in insulating blankets.
One proposal suggested that live
chicken
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
s would be sealed inside the casing, with a supply of food and water.
They would remain alive for approximately a week. Their body heat would apparently have been sufficient to keep the mine's components at a working temperature.
This proposal was sufficiently outlandish that it was taken as an
April Fool's Day
April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. Mas ...
joke when the Blue Peacock file was declassified on 1 April 2004.
Tom O'Leary, head of education and interpretation at the
National Archives
National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention.
Conceptual development
From the Middle Ages i ...
, replied to the media that, "It does seem like an April Fool but it most certainly is not. The Civil Service does not do jokes."
See also
*
Rainbow Codes
References
{{Strategic nuclear weapon systems of the United Kingdom
Abandoned military projects of the United Kingdom
Cold War military equipment of the United Kingdom
Land mines of the United Kingdom
Nuclear mines
Nuclear weapons of the United Kingdom
Rainbow code