As Chief Superintendent Armament Research ( CSAR , pronounced " Caesar " ) , Penney directed bomb design from Fort Halstead . In 1951 his design group moved to a new site at Aldermaston in Berkshire . The first British atomic bomb was successfully tested in Operation Hurricane on 3 October 1952 . Britain thereby became the third country to test nuclear weapons . The first Blue Danube atomic bombs were delivered to Bomber Command in November 1953 , although the V bombers to deliver them were not available until 1955 . In the meantime , nuclear deterrence was provided by the United States Strategic Air Command , which had begun operating from British bases in 1949
Operation Hurricane
Operation Hurricane
British hydrogen bomb programme