Red Shrimp

For other uses, see Red shrimp.
XH558 displaying in 2012. Red Shrimp can just be seen as the two black dots between the tailpipes of 3 & 4 engines, uppermost in this photo.

Red Shrimp was an airborne high-bandwidth radar jammer fitted to the Vulcan and Victor. The name was one of the Rainbow Codes, its official name was ARI.18076, for Airborne Radio Installation.

Red Shrimp was based on the carcinotron, a new type of vacuum tube introduced in 1953 by the French company Thomson-CSF. The carcinotron produced microwaves across a wide bandwidth and could be tuned as quickly as a single input voltage could be changed. They rapidly swept through all of the frequencies used by enemy radars, hitting their operational frequencies hundreds of times a second. These would be plotted on the radar's plan position indicator, filling it with so many "blips" that the bomber was invisible.

Red Shrimp remained operational on the V-bomber fleet through its entire history. Although it was still operational during the Falklands War, it was considered obsolete and not used in combat.