American missiles : 1962 to the present day : the complete Smithsonian field guide

325 Pages·2012·46.37 MB·English

by  Nicklas

American Missiles
The Complete Smithsonian Field Guide
Brian Nicklas
American Missiles: 1962 to the Present Day

This edition published in 2012 by Frontline Books,
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Limited,
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Copyright © Brian D. Nicklas, 2012
9781783468935

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1988.

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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Numerical List of Missiles
American Missiles
Missile Name List
Missile Families
Bibliography
Missiles assigned the modern (1962) MDS (Mission Design Series)
designations held by the National Air and Space Museum
Index of Designations, Names and Acronyms
Photo Credits
Introduction
A missile is a projectile, and a projectile is an object propelled through the air (or
space) by thrust. Thrust may be applied by an outside force such as a rubber
band (as with a slingshot) or even by throwing with one’s arm. Or, propulsion
might be by an internal motor. A motor may be an air-breathing type, such as jet
engine (including a turbojet) or ramjet or pulsejet, or, it could be a rocket –
either solid-fuel or liquid-fuel, or could be boosted into the air by a rocket, solid
or liquid. Projectiles can be the object of focus in a sport, such as a golf ball or
football, or from debris cast out by a shattering window, but the term projectile
in most cases is used to describe a weapon. As a weapon, a projectile could be an
artillery shell fired from cannon, an unguided, or a guided missile. Here we look
at the guided missile.
Simply put – in fact to over-simplify – a missile is a tube pointed at one end
and open at the other for rocket exhaust (if the missile is rocket propelled). But
perhaps the earliest pyrotechnicians had to explain to the Chinese emperors the
differences between short-and long-range missiles, or even between military
rockets and celebratory fireworks. Did senior officers in the military arms of the
19th Century and journalists of the period need Congreve and Hale rockets
explained to them? (For those who do not know, Sir William Congreve and
William Hale were the two most prominent British rocket pioneers in the 19th
century.) Perhaps when the “rocket’s red glare” illuminated the night sky during
the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812, the
various versions of the British Congreve rockets were too small in number for
any party to be concerned. Now, in the 21st Century, missiles are varied in size,
shape, speed and purpose, many with and some without an explosive warhead.
When launched from the aerial and submarine platforms now in use, missiles are
used from environments outside the comprehension of the military leaders of
ancient times.
Rather than an individual history of each and every weapons system or aerial
vehicle to be bestowed with an “M for Missile” designation, this volume hopes
to be a visual guide to these devices. A full history for some could easily be
crafted on a single page; other programs would need an entire volume on their
own. In 1962, a new system of identifying aerospace military hardware came
into place for the American military. This nomenclature combined the aircraft
and missiles of the Army, Navy and Air Force under common terms, to ease
identification. In the 1990s, as the Archives Division staff, National Air and
Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution organized and rehoused
the Space Reference Files an effort was made to use the military system in place
to identify appropriate files under the same terminology. A few years later, the
Museum acquired through a generous donation, the Herbert S. Desind
Collection. It was while indexing, processing and rehousing the Desind
Collection at the National Air and Space Museum’s Archival Support Center at
the Paul E. Garber Facility, that this author became frustrated by having loose
images of missiles that were not properly identified. It seemed that information
on a good number of missiles had not been held previously by NASM. As I
looked about for a reference tool to assist me, this book was born. There were a
few places on the internet I could search, but I was not near a computer to access
those and needed something I could physically have at hand. Watching the
television news coverage of various military operations and reading about these
same events at the same time, and seeing missiles misidentified also reinforced
the idea that such a publication would be useful. As new missiles come into
development and use, the confusion that seems prevalent in assigning a
designation at all also indicates that a single volume on the topic will be an aid to
those working on the subject at hand. Some of the drones that appear in this
publication may seem out of place. This may explain why in the late 1990s
drones were renamed “unmanned aerial vehicles” and given a “Q” rather than
“M” prefix.
A few words about the major source of images for this publication. Herbert S.
Desind was a high school science teacher in the Washington DC area with a
passion for rocketry and spaceflight. He collected images from all over the world
to assist with his teaching in the classroom and with his hobby of making model
rockets. Before his death, he acquired over 100 cubic ft of images, not only of
manned spacecraft, satellites and airplanes, but also of modern American
military missiles, and those make up the bulk of the images used in this
publication. Other images were added by contacting the military services or the
National Archives for older missiles, and the military and defense contractors for
the recent missiles.
The reader will note that the date spread of this work is 1962 – 2011. These
dates as chosen as the start of the current Military Designation System to the
present, and does not include earlier missiles that e were not re-designated. The
reader should know too, that this is not an historical work and therefore does not
go into the developmental histories of the missiles covered in the work but is
strictly a ready directory of all known U.S. missiles within this time frame. For
those who wish to learn more about the histories of some of these missile
systems they need consult some of the sources in the Bibliography in the back of
the book.
The missiles are arranged in sequence by their “M” number. Much as
American military aircraft have an alpha-numeric designator showing the type
and identity, such as the F-16 fighter or the KC-135 tanker, missiles have
designations as well. All should have designations rather than names when they
enter service, should being the key word. And much as the NKC-135A
designation will let you know that the variant of the Stratotanker you are looking
at is a permanently modified tanker version of the first cargo aircraft from the
-135 series, the missile designation ASM-135A lets you know you are looking at
a first version anti-satellite missile, the 135th in the missile series.
The US Army, US Navy and US Air Force all had different ways to designate
their aircraft and missiles until the fall of 1962 when a joint system came into
use. While some missiles were due to be withdrawn from service yet were given
new designations; others were just entering service with two or more military
branches and were given one designation to enable procurement and
identification with greater ease. Some missiles had earlier been given aircraft
designations, the 1962 system had them change to M – for-missile designations.
The standard which appears to have been applied to the subject of this volume is
that guided weapons are missiles, unguided weapons are rockets given an “R”
designation, such as the GAR-2 “Genie” rocket fired from F-106 interceptors.
In some cases, this publication will have a blank where no information is
known. This may be a case where the missile in question is still classified; it may
be a case where the designation was left open for a project that never came to
fruition. There are instances where a designation was assigned to a paper project,
with little or no hardware built. Some missile contracts were competed for, with
several firms building a weapon, with only the winner being assigned a military
designation. Other times both missiles for one contract had designations
assigned, but only one would see production. What complicates matters is when
a weapon is produced and fielded seemingly without being assigned a number at
all. This is the case with the current Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) which has
at least been launched in tests, but has yet to receive a designation. Some
designations, such as that of the ASM-135, are totally overlooked as the popular
name takes hold and is promulgated by the media and others. The ASM-135 is
commonly called the ASAT, which is as useful as calling the E-3 Sentry the
AWACS, when the Sentry is but one example of an Airborne Warning and
Control System aircraft. Currently the ASM-135 is the only ASAT missile, but
that may change in years to come. The Tomahawk cruise missile is not the only
American cruise missile, yet using the name rather than the designation brings to
mind the problem with all small light aircraft being called “Cubs”, not just the
Piper J-3. The BGM-109 Tomahawk competed with the BGM-110, which
although built and flown, did not win a production contract.
What would seem to be a straightforward system devised to end confusion has
enough exceptions to cause more confusion, not lessen it. A missile designation
would seem to imply a rocket, or at the very least a jet-powered vehicle, yet not
only are there missile designations applied to drones with small (in some case
single-cylinder) reciprocating engine, there are missiles that are unpowered,
being more aptly guided bombs such as the AGM-62. An example of where this
was rectified is the case of the AGM-112, which was re-designated as the GBU-
15.
There are enough drones on the list to ask the question of why it took until the
later 1990s before drones (once RPVs or Remotely Piloted Vehicles, now UAVs
or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) were given their own category, now becoming
the “Q” series. There had been reluctance across the board to elevate the
importance of UAVs in the military, as supporters (likely to their own detriment)
have proclaimed each new era of UAVs as the beginning of the end of manned
combat aircraft. This shift can be noted in that the BQM-155 was re-designated
the RQ-5.
Successive improvements to a design would be indicated by a change to the
suffix letter after the missile number. The liquid-fueled CIM-10A Bomarc
became the revised CIM-10B with a solid-fuel engine installed. Yet there are
exceptions to this, or what would appear to be aberrations. The BQM-34 Firebee
underwent a distinct physical change to become the Firebee II, yet it remained
with the BQM-34 designation as it was felt that the guidance and control
systems had an over-riding degree of commonality with the not-so-sleek earlier
versions. An exception to this are that several of the Radioplane drones are so
common between each other that the use of an “A” or “B” suffix would seem to
suffice, yet the designations of MQM-33 and MQM-36 were applied. One
should think the only difference was between being bought for the Air Force or