Read my second link st post #4....

....Looking to avoid making this sort of mistake, Ministry of Supply (MoS) initiated a system that would be entirely random and deliberately unrelated to the program in any way,[2] while still being easy to remember.

Each rainbow code name was constructed from a randomly selected colour, plus an (often appropriate) noun taken from a list, .....

The names were mostly dropped with the end of the Ministry in 1959....

Rainbow codes, or at least names that look like them without being official, have occasionally been used for some modern systems; current examples include the Orange Reaper Electronic Support Measures system and the Blue Vixen radar[4]—the latter most likely so named because it was a replacement for the Blue Fox radar.....

Not to mention the entirely unofficial 'Blue Eric'- the cobbled together ECM (?) kit shoehorned into an ADEN cannon pod for Harriers engaged on Op CORPORATE.

Given Blue Steel's role I doubt it.

Neither was Blue Danube. Yellow Sun had nothing to do with EW either.

And the renowned Tornado ADV “Blue Circle” radar...... :}

Ah! But at least Blue Eric was 'real' - and worked!! (Always loved the heat dispersal method: machine a large lump of copper with lots of fins and stick it in the airflow @ 420 kts +)

I’m pretty sure Orange Putter was named by someone familiar with the Malay language.

Blue Circle was as concrete a design as they come....

Green Satin Canberra PR9 and others, Blue Silk Shackleton Doppler variant , MR3 The MR2 and 3 also had fixtures for Orange Harvest although it was often not installed or functional. Violet Picture also comes to mind but I cannot recall what the system was.
I Thought I had forgotten all this stuff

I was employed in the Electronics Centre at RAF Finningley 1966 to 1969 approximately and had occasional contact with ECM maintenance and can recollect that it could be a messy task removing the can covers if there had been glycol leaks. I seem to remember a special sump area of the workshop for this activity. The lower members were delegated this task . Rank had privilege!

And Orange Yeoman ended up keeping people fafe over the UK, at Mil ATCRUs. :ok:

Violet Picture was the PLB (SARBE) homer. Fitted to the Shackleton, Nimrod and I suspect various helicopters as well.

Then there’s Yellow Gate, Nimrod MR2 ESM system.

YS

Orange Putter in some Canberra's. Tail warning? So it was said!

Bill

I’ll bite!
(Suspect my Malay was limited to Bukit Timah and Bukit Panjang !)
What did Orange P mean in Malay ?

Named after the Yeoman Bus Compony who ran the bus service around Malvern at the time the development of the radar started (for the Army) apparently.

[QUOTE]Violet Picture was the PLB (SARBE) homer. Fitted to the Shackleton, Nimrod and I suspect various helicopters as well.[/QUOTE]

Yep, certainly fitted to the Wessex

"Touchè, Pussycat!" 👍

Here's my informed contribution, wasn't the new AIR in the See Harrier FRS1 known as Blue Vixen?! Also, did they have another name for the Tonka's Foxhunter? Pink Parrot or something!?:cool:

FB

Violet Picture
 

YS Thank you for the reminder re Violet Picture. I now remember it well, including the cross pointer indicator and mainplane antenna systems. I did not have much contact with the Nimrod as after leaving 203 Sqn when it re equipped with the Nimrod I went to Lynham to the C130. Happy days.

I think FRS.1's radar was Blue Fox with Blue Vixen being the upgrade for the F/A2.

My understanding is that the random colour/word combination was chosen as during the war the Allies had been able to guess the role of some pieces of German equipment due to the name.