Dear All,
I may not know what it is but I can tell you what it isn't. It is not an SS-11 as operated by the AAC from the seventies up to the last firing in April 1987 by 658 Sqn. The SS-11 was a powered all the way to the target missile that used MACLOS (Manual Command Line Of Sight) as guidance, essentially, with one hand (the left), the Airgunner would control the sight (it was gyro assisted, not stabilised) and increase the magnification when about 750m to impact and with the other hand would fly the missile. The missile had odd flight characteristics, the main being as the propellant burnt off the CofG altered resulting in a nose up atitude coupled with the control responses that had a built in latency up to 0.5 of a sec. The SOP was to place the missile above the target in the LOS and allow it to decend slowly as opposed to trying to fly it direct to the target. Despite being powered, there was very little efflux from the motor and as such, two electrically initiated flares were fitted to the rear to allow the Airgunner to see the thing. Direction changes were provided by small nozzles at the rear of the missile that the airflow from a compressed air bottle was interrupted by paddles. The fins were fixed and imparted a slow spin for stability, this was interpreted by the on-board gyro so that any command by the Airgunner was always in the correct sense. We only fired at Pendine Sands and Otterburn towards the end, the last at Onion Range, Falklands being 1983. In the UK we only fired Prac which had an orange powder warhead to indicate a hit, the HE not being fired for cost, danger of blinds and an increased WDA. This would be indicated by a brown ring to denote the propellant and a blue ring to denote a drill warhead. This appears to have neither. There appears to be a lot of caggage without the flare pots. The large hole is the major giveaway that this not a SS-11. there are two lugs at the base of the missile and towards the front of the remains pictured, both of pretty identical size, an SS-11 had the ones at he back but a far beefier fitment at the fron that was connected to an explosive bolt that initiated after 0.3 of a second after the ignition sequence was fired. The poster ref the blue nozzles is off the mark, this means nothing. If it is a complete missile, you are looking at the propulsion section taht will contain about 1kg of propellant. If you are successful in igniting it, it will very definitely leave a mark as the design spec is to accelerate an inanimate, aerodynamic object from 0 to 550mph in about 1.5 secs. It will attempt to beat itself to death and try to take you with it. Call ATO or Otterburn or the Northumbria Constabulary. NOW!
(An HWI)