‘Secret Missile Will Fill Gap’

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30057, 15 February 1963, Page 9

‘Secret Missile Will Fill Gap’

(N Z. Pres* Association— Copyright) LONDON, February 14. Britain has been secretly building its own independent missile—an airborne rocket that would be virtually unstoppable—the “Daily Sketch” said today.

The newspaper’s defence correspondent, Desmond Clough said it was expected to be ready in 1965-66. He said the rocket—“ Missile X” —was “the best-kept defence secret so far.”

Experts had been completing the prototype of the secret rocket when Britain accepted the Polaris missile from the United States at the Nassau talks.

At the time everyone had believed there was nothing coming along to fill the gap between now and the 1970’5, when Britain’s Polaris submarines would become operational, Clough said. “Missile X” would be carried by the Royal Air Force TSR-2 bomber which was expected to enter service in 1965-66.

Clough said "Missile X” would extend the Air Farce’s contribution to the independent nuclear force when Blue Steel, the stand-off bomb, became outdated in the late 1960’5. It would also provide an airborne weapon to match the sea-launched Polaris as Britain's missile submarines began to become operational in the 1970’5. The speed of “Missile X” would be “so great that it will be virtually unstoppable.” Work on the missile had begun as a top-secret project in 1959. Clough said: “Now the secret is out the entire defence picture resulting from the switch from Skybolt to Polaris is changed. . . . “For, extraordinary as it may seem in the light of the pronouncements after Nassau, Britain apparently had a fully-independent nuclear deterrent being built for the 1970’s all the time.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said early today that the ministry would “go along with” claims that the TSR-2 has “been given a weapon,” Reuter reported. "It all boils down to the fact that the TSR-2 has got a weapon. I can’t see what all the fuss is about,” he said. “The Ministry of Defence has not seen this newspaper article so we are not going to clear it yet.”

Trade Mission (N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) CANBERRA, Feb. 14. A New Zealand manufacturers’ trade mission would be welcomed, the Trade Minister (Mr J. McEwen) said today. He was commenting on the announcement by the New Zealand Trade Minister (Mr Marshall) that a 25-man mission from New Zealand would arrive in Australia on April 28.