in combat, have guns limited to self-defence, and carrying a single twin-missile launcher. The designs were continually modified in order to find a suitable arrangement. They started as early as 1953 with a mid-sized cruiser of carrying 60 to 90 missiles and a crew of 900. Admiral Ralph Edwards pointed out it would be more useful to have a larger number of small ships with 10 to 20 missiles than one larger one, but attempts to design such a ship resulted in one with room for the weapons but not the crew needed to operate them. In May 1955 a wide variety of plans for designs between the two extremes were compared, ranging from 9,850 tons down to 4,550. After continual comparison and revision, these plans finally gelled around what became the County-class destroyer. Testing Test firings of the GAP-based examples, now known as Rocket Test Vehicle 1, or RTV.1, demonstrated beam riding in October 1956. The Navy had set a date of 1957 for a broad modernization of the fleet, so they desired Seaslug to be cleared for service in 1956. To this end, they accepted the use of liquid fuels in spite of the Navy's concerns with these fuels on ships. However, by 1956 a new solid fuel rocket had been developed at the Summerfield Research Station which provided the desired range. Continual tests took place over the next four years using both the Clausen Rolling Platform at RAE Aberporth and the Girdle Ness. A final series of tests at sea, which culminated in sixteen successful firings, finally cleared the missile for service in 1961. After more than 250 launches, the Seaslug Mark 1, also known as Guided Weapon System 1, or GWS.1, finally entered service in 1962 on County-class, each fitted with a single twin missile launcher and a complete weapon system with one fire control set and 30 missiles. The Seaslug-armed cruisers were cancelled in 1957. Seaslug needed height, range and bearing information for targets. By 1955 the Royal Navy considered using the Type 984 radar on Seaslug-armed cruisers and destroyers to provide this. During development, the projected weight of the radar doubled, to the point where it could still potentially be mounted on cruisers, but was rejected for destroyers because it would have meant sacrificing their 4.5 in gun armament. The gun armament was regarded as essential for the navy's wider role outside the hot