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The North American AGM-28 Hound Dog was the first air-launched nuclear stand-off missile developed by the United States. 1 Development
The development of the nuclear stand-off missile was initiated by the USAF in 1956. Initially known as Weapon System 131B, it was intended to give Strategic Air Command heavy bombers the ability to attack Soviet targets from outside enemy airspace. The first powered flight of the prototype missile, designated XGAM-77, was made in April 1959. The missile's engine, airframe, and warhead were straightforward adaptations of existing technology, so the weapon's development period was quite short, and the production GAM-77 entered operational service in December 1959. It received the popular name Hound Dog, apparently inspired by the contemporary hit song by Elvis Presley.
Hound Dog was a essentially an unpiloted jet airplane with small delta wings and forward canards. It was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney J-52-P-3 turbojet in a ventral pod beneath the rear fuselage, with 7,500 lb (33 kN) thrust. It used inertial navigation for guidance, with position updates provided by astro-trackers mounted in the launch pylon. The W28 warhead (the same as the B28 nuclear bomb) had an explosive yield of 1.1 megatons. The missile's maximum range was about 700 mi (1,100 km).
The Hound Dog was carried by B-52 Stratofortress bombers; both the B-52G and B-52H were fitted with provision for the large underwing pylons to launch the weapons, each bomber normally carrying one under each wing. The Hound Dog's fuel tanks, interestingly, could be topped up from the B-52's own fuel supply, and before launch its engines could be used as auxiliary booster engines for the bomber. (Evidently the missile's astro-tracker could also supplement the carrier aircraft's navigation systems.)
The GAM-77 was subsequently upgraded to GAM-77A standard, with improved astro-trackers now mounted in the missile, rather than the pylon, a radar altimeterAn altimeter is an active instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. For example, a laser altimeter can measure height from a spacecraft above an ice-sheet. That measurement, coupled with radial orbit knowledge, will enable, and larger fuel capacity.
In June 1963This is a list of aviation-related events from 1963: Events January January 7 Aeroflot commences direct services between Moscow and Havana February February 14 the Indian Air Force receives its first batch of Soviet fighters, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s Marc the GAM-77 and GAM-77A were redesignated AGM-28A and AGM-28B, respectively. An updated AGM-28C, with improved guidance, was proposed in the early 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends, but never built.
A total of about 700 Hound Dogs were produced. They were intended to be replaced by the AGM-48 SkyboltThe Douglas GAM-87A ''Skybolt was an air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) developed during the late 1950s. It was intended to provide a "safer" basing for the USAF's missile force, on its bomber fleet rather than fixed missile silos. A series of test fai, which did not enter service. The last Hound Dogs were retired in 1976This is a list of aviation-related events from 1976: Events March March 17 a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 makes the first non-stop flight from Tokyo to New York, taking 11. 5 hours for the 10,139 km (6,300 mile) journey. April April 5 Howard Hughes dies abo.
2 Specifications
- Length: 12.95 m (42 ft 6 in)
- Wingspan: 3.66 m (12 ft)
- Diameter: 0.71 m (28 in)
- Launch Weight: 4,500 kg (10,000 lb)
- Speed: Mach 2.1
- Ceiling: 16,800 m (55,000 ft)
- Maximum Range: 1,100 km (700 miles)
- Guidance: inertial with astro-tracker correction
- CEPIn the military science of ballistics, Circular Error Probability or circular error probable (CEP is a simple measure of a weapon system's precision. It is defined as the radius of a circle into which a missile, bomb, or projectile will land at least half: N/A
- Warhead: W-28 thermonuclearAt the end of the 20th century, Thermonuclear has came to imply anything which has to do with fusion nuclear reactions which are triggered by particles of thermal energy. Description Jean Baptiste Perrin explained solar energy production by the thermonucl (1.1 MT)
