American Missiles: The Complete Smithsonian Field Guide

By Brian D. Nicklas

This remarkable guide provides for the first time an illustrated listing of almost 200 of Americas most powerful missiles. With information on all aspects of the missiles specifications, including the speed and capacity of the explosives used in its warhead, this book provides a comprehensive guide to the US Armys projectile hardware. 'American Missiles: The Complete Smithsonian Field Guide' draws heavily on the Herbert S. Desind Photo Collection, a resource of more than 110,000 images recently catalogued at the National Air and Space Museum. Of interest to both the specialist and the aviation enthusiasts, this book demonstrates the evolution of American missile design over the last forty years in an accessible and entertaining format.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781783468935

Book preview

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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,

47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

www.frontline-books.com

Email [e-mail] or write to us at the above address.

Copyright © Brian D. Nicklas, 2012

9781783468935

The right of Brian D. Nicklas to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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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 re-housing 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 the Navy, and that one number would be enough.

This volume focuses on designated missiles. Programs flown, yet undesignated are omitted. Previous missiles that did not survive the rebranding of designations in 1962 are also omitted. There are several examples of designated missiles for which only the designation and the cursory information that provided are listed. These can be missiles for which the requirement evaporated after the numbers were assigned, with no drawings or fabrication taking place. Or the minimal designation may hold the place for a missile that may have been required by one branch of the military, but had actually duplicated the efforts of another missile in use by another branch. The duplication may have been service vs service, or a case of an older upgraded missile matching the capabilities of the proposed new weapon system. All the information found for this publication came from open sources, so some of the blank designations may be for missiles that were indeed built, but where any details remain classified at some level. Given the nature of the subject, it is hoped that this would be a first edition on American Missiles, and that omissions, revisions, corrections and updates would follow, to include information from those that may have worked on a particular program and are now available to provide information on what may have been more secretive in the past. There are a good number of missiles for which I was unable to obtain an image. It would appear that unsuccessful programs disappear quickly from corporate records, and often for a missile under initial testing, those records would not be found in Department of Defense holdings.

As a visual guide to these devices, it should be noted that details may be lacking in some images. With 174 designations, and trying to obtain an average of two images per designation, the number of images became daunting. While the AIM-9 Sidewinder has not changed very much in general, the BQM-34 Firebee has undergone enough visual changes where more than two images were required. But please note that if one were aiming to use these images for scale modeling purposes both large and small, you will likely not find the desired amount of details. Again, that would be best left to a single volume on that particular missile.

The omission of scale drawings is

Reviews for American Missiles

[Richard kaczmarek · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Extensive coverage of active, experimental and retired missiles.
The book gave a brief description of missile nomenclature
acronyms such as NIM, UUB, BQM, etc.
Specifications and a brief narrative were given for each item.
Some of the photos were too small or partially obscured
while mounted on aircraft.

Text ended on about page 550 followed by list of missiles,
bibliography and index.