Red Hawk Rising

personnel. They could work on all parts of the equipment. Some of them headed out to the NAAFI (Navy Army Air Force Institute), others gathered around a television. Andy went out to walk around the base. He particularly wanted to know where the gym was so that he could work out and also practice his martial art patterns.
At 08.00 hours the next morning (Thursday 22nd), they all assembled in the lecture room for the security briefing. There was the usual reminder that they were all signatories to the Official Secrets Act, then the officer in charge of the detachment signalled for the projector to be switched on. A picture of a civilian came up on the screen and the officer said, “This is a Russian spy. Take note of him and beware if you see him.” He nodded to the projectionist and another face came up on the screen. “This is another one. There is little point in giving you the names that they go under. If they talk to you it is unlikely that they will use the names we know. Remember their faces. Expect them in the places that you frequent. If they offer to buy you a drink then refuse. Don’t molest them outside of the workplace or base, whatever your feelings might be.” Andy made good note. He didn’t know them from the past. Then another picture went up on the screen and Andy gave a start. The officer said, “This is the Russian military attaché at the Manchester Consulate. You may see him around the locality. Do not enter into conversation with him. Also, remember that he has diplomatic status.” As he spoke, Andy was thinking back into the past in Scotland but decided to pay attention to the present. They were briefed that an MI5 agent was around but no name or photo was given. With a final warning to be on their guard, the briefing ended and the men headed out to the office or the bus that would take them to the factory. Andy joined the latter.
The RAF bus pulled up inside the gates of Argonaut Industries and all the personnel got off and checked in with security. Andy and three others were new so they had to wait while temporary passes were issued and their photographs taken. Then they were taken to the main project office for Red Hawk. They were introduced to Bill Reeves, a mathematician and computer expert. He took them down to a lecture room, bid them be seated and then he briefed them on the missile and control systems. A new computer was being developed for the system, the ‘Mercury’. It was an analogue system and therefore ‘fluid’ in its scale of readings, unlike the digital which worked on binary, hence the name chosen. Programming was different and had Boolean algebra as its starting point. Bill Reeves spoke animatedly about the subject, obviously absorbed in his work. Andy followed his explanations with delight and entered into a discussion on the mathematics and design. Reeves showed his pleasure at this interest. The other three airmen were technicians and didn’t enjoy the discussion as much as Andy. After an hour they broke for coffee and then were taken on a tour of the facilities. Reeves was a good instructor and kept the tour interesting. In the process Andy was able to ask about progress reporting and the documentation that went with the building and testing of the equipment. At the end of the tour two of the techs were taken to join the control unit team and the other to the missile team. Andy was taken to the project co-ordination office. It coordinated the progress on all aspects of the missile system and had its own communication facilities. Bill introduced Andy to Ken Davidson, suggesting that they get together later for a further discussion. Andy grinned his agreement and Bill headed back to his own office. After a brief discussion of each other’s roles, Ken took Andy to a wall board with the PERT (Planning, Evaluation and Review Technique) network pinned on it. This technique had been designed in the USA to fast-track a new missile system and had proved itself as a useful management tool for complex projects such as Red Hawk. They discussed the different aspects of the project and the timing for delivery to the RAF, ready for trials. Each night, progress reports came in from each of the companies involved in the project. Similarly, reports went off to Air Ministry. These were typed up and then passed to the telex operators. The reports were punched up on the telex tape and the spool of punched taped was set up on a telex machine ready for transmission at night. The operator pre-set the time for the machine to operate — usually 21.00 hours. By that time, the building was usually cleared of personnel except the cleaners and security staff. Andy made notes and asked about the different documents that were used to progress the project. He was interested to see whether there was common documentation throughout or whether each company was using its own documentation, which would mean duplication of effort. Ken arranged for another staff member to take Andy through the factory and see the physical progress of documents through the system. Andy noted that the sets of production documents and progress reports were pre-compiled sets, each with a reference number and interleaved with single-use carbon. A clerk or typist would type the information onto a set and then the different copies would be separated and sent to different departments for processing. The carbon paper was separated and thrown away. Andy decided that he would have to find an excuse to stay back and see what happened.
The staff member took Andy through each area where work was being done on assembly and testing and showed him the progress of the documents. In each of these areas there were RAF personnel from the