Thor missiles

If past experience is worth anything, the knowledge gained in the successful design, installation and operation of the Thor missile should be taken into consideration. The lubricants and thread compounds used in this program were Kel-F, Halocarbon, Fluorolube, Oxylube, Teflon and Molybdenum Disulfide [8, 23,24,25]. 

In mid-1959 the Minister of Defence, Sandys, on the advice of his permanent secretary, Powell, established an independent British Nuclear Deterrent Smdy Group, with representatives of the three services, the Foreign Office and the Treasury, under Powell s chairmanship. The group compared Blue Streak with two American ballistic missiles, the submarine-launched Polaris and the air-launched Skybolt. Rising estimates for the costs of research and development and of underground silos hardened the Treasury s opposition to Blue Streak, and the Chiefs of Staff were in favour of a mobile system. Once President Eisenhower had indicated to Macmillan in March 1960 that Skybolt would be available on satisfactory terms, the Defence Committee took the decision to cancel Blue Streak as a weapons system. The vulnerable Thors were taken out of service by the end of 1963. 

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