Designed to Specification B.14/46, the Short Sperrin was intended as an insurance against failure of the Vickers Valiant, the first of the RAF's V-bombers. Two prototypes were built, the first flying on 10 August 1951 and used to test new high-altitude radar navigation and bombing equipment that was to be incorporated in the V-bombers. The second aircraft, which flew in August 1952, was used to test aerodynamic bomb shapes in connection with the development of Britain's first atomic bomb, the MC.Mk 1 'Blue Danube'.
