On March 17th 1959 the Naval Staff Target issued a requirement for a new multipurpose fighter/recon aircraft to enter service in 1970, which was turned into the joint Naval/Air Operational Requirement 346 (OR.346) on April 3rd as a basis for a research programme. The OR calls for an All-Up Weight of 50,000 lbs, a carrying capacity of 6,000lbs over 1,000nmi (last 200 nmi being low level) or a tactical nuclear weapon. In the interceptor role the requirement is for 4 AAMs with a combat air patrol of 4 hours and a speed of Mach 2 for intercept at 80,000ft. Reconnaissance capability, an 80mph approach speed and a 12-24h configuration turnaround time is also desirable.

Responding to the Operational Requirements were 4 main offerings:

• Vickers (BAC Weybridge) with their Type 581/583 variable geometry fighter, Type 582 twin boom lifting surface design

• Blackburn (Hawker Siddeley) with their P.123 supersonic Buccaneer derivatives.

• de Havilland (Hawker Siddeley) with their DH.127 thrust diverter design

• Hawker (Hawker Siddeley) with their line of V/STOL strike fighters from P.1149 to P.1153

Of these, Blackburn’s design is deemed to be the most conventional and would be the cheapest to develop, though would offer the smallest amount of room for upgradability and is judged, perhaps unfairly, to be a new coat of paint on an “outdated 50s design”. Hawker’s design is not favoured within the Naval Staff due to its compromising V/STOL approach, and regardless both Hawker’s and Blackburn’s offerings were sidelined for de Havilland’s DH.127 as the “internally preferred” Hawker Siddeley offering to OR.346.

Their main competitor is the Vickers VG aircraft, deriving themselves from a long lineage of research into variable geometry vehicles starting with the pioneering Barnes Wallis’s Vickers Swallow. The Vickers VG offers are subject to a separate requirement for a VG research program, ER.206. While so far research into variable geometry flight has been mostly a cross Atlantic affair, in August further work without American participation was awarded to Vickers covering the construction of further wind tunnel models and tests, structural testing of the sweep mechanism and an engineering assessment of VG as part of a combat aircraft. Vickers, recently flushed with MoD research funds (thanks to their participation in the Skybolt program, to be covered by a separate post), has begun to drawn up plans for construction of a flight ready prototype research craft for a 1964 flight test.

Meanwhile, the Naval Staff, aware of work being done on the NATO Permanent Working Group AC/169 thanks to information passed along by a certain Chief of the Imperial General Staff the Earl Mountbatten, is keen to push the MoA for further funding for OR.346. It is believed that speed is key in securing the Navy’s future combat aircraft, not sullied by unworkable ideas of a “Vertical Lift Off and Landing” for their future carrier. On this ground, de Havilland’s DH.127 was selected on grounds of technological maturity, with only the deflected thrust RB.168 Spey being a potential long lead research item. While the RAF remains unconvinced, citing that while the DH.127 may offer short takeoff and landing performance, it falls shy of full VTOL and unprepared takeoff capability, the Naval Staff was keen to get OR.346 going in full steam. Hoping to achieve a resemblance of cross-service collaboration, MoD is reluctant to agree for budgeting of further developments for the DH.127 for FY1961 and 1962, deferring an official requirement until 1963.

Under consistent lobbying from the Navy lobby, who guarantees that OR.346 is set to be the wonderplane that is to replace all types of fixed wing aircraft in the Fleet Air Arm inventory for the 70s, with upwards of 200 aircrafts being ordered and potential customers in the French (who are looking for a carrier aircraft to be flown off Clemenceau and Foch), the Germans (who are looking for a STOL F-104 replacement), and even the Americans. Claims have been made that the OR.346 is far more practical and could do the job of 3 VTOL capable fighters of the same class, or even being able to compete and outdo the OR.343 aircraft (TSR.2).

De Havilland, currently relatively overstretched with the Blue Streak Satellite Launch Vehicle (BSSLV), has partnered up with Blackburn and Ferranti in a private bid to get the DH.127 (now the DH.128) off the ground. Ferranti would take over the avionics for the BSSLV, freeing up DH design staff to work on the 128, while Blackburn would join force in an internal Hawker Siddeley joint bid to deliver a prototype DH.128 (without the jet deflector and liftjet integration) by 1963. The American company Republic Aviation has also offered a decent sum to support the development process.

A major reshuffling in cabinet comes with new priorities. Former First Lord of the Admiralty the Lord Carrington was now the Minister of Defence, which means that connections he made during his year or so in the Admiralty are now whispering in his ears. Thus a formal requirement was launched, OR.356 for a carrier based multipurpose strike/intercept/reconnaissance fighter was launched, with virtually identical requirements to OR.346. Max speed is now set at Mach 2.5 for dash capabilities for intercepting a Mach 3 target at 80,000ft, which suspiciously out of the remaining offerings for OR.346, only the DH.128 could match. Service entry set for 1968 and a Royal Navy order of around 200 units is to be expected. OR.356 is drafted in theory as a joint-service requirement per MoD policy, though the RAF looks to distance itself away from OR.356 for now. “It’s too good at being a Hunter, too bad at being a Canberra” as one senior RAF official was quoted, which highlights the threat OR.356 poses to future RAF force structure plans.