Operational Requirement
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2013}}
An Operational Requirement, commonly abbreviated OR, was a United Kingdom (UK) Air Ministry document setting out the required characteristics for a future (i.e., as-yet unbuilt) military aircraft or weapon system.
The numbered OR would describe what intended role the aircraft would be used for, e.g., bomber, fighter, etc., or what type of weapon was required, e.g., gun, armament, bomb type, etc.
In conjunction with any official specification, prospective manufacturers would then choose whether to design an aircraft or weapon for this particular requirement.
Operational Requirements were carried over with the dissolution of the Air Ministry and the creation of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Other requirements
An Experimental Requirement (ER) was for an aircraft for research purposes; e.g., ER.100 in support of development of the English Electric Lightning.
See also
Notes
{{notelist}}
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book|last=Moore|first=Richard|year=2010|title=Nuclear Illusion, Nuclear Reality: Britain, the United States, and Nuclear Weapons, 1958-64|url=https://archive.org/details/nuclearillusionn00moor|url-access=limited|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|series=Nuclear Weapons and International Security since 1945|location=Basingstoke, Hampshire|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nuclearillusionn00moor/page/n97 81]-82|isbn=978-0230-21775-1|oclc=705646392|quote= }}
{{UKColdWarProjects}}
{{United Kingdom Ministry of Defence}}
Category:Cold War military equipment of the United Kingdom
Category:United Kingdom defence procurement
Category:British military aircraft
{{mil-aviation-stub}}