Website of the Documentary Film

"Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines"

No, the Flying Tigers never flew SM-62s, but their fabled shark's teeth motif did survive to adorn this SNARK. While many SNARK flights were conducted successfully up to 5,000 miles over the Atlantic Missile Range from 1953 to 1960, more than 30 of the missiles were lost to crashes or were destroyed by range safety officers during developmental testing. Many of these losses were attributed to guidance system failures. (Photo from Wings and Airpower historical archive).

Winged Missiles of the

U.S. Air Force -- continued

Entering Snark-Infested Waters

What do you get when you cross a snake and a shark? If you answered 'a Northrop SM-62', you're correct. That missile's proper name, however, was the SNARK ­ a colorful and distinctive combination of those two animal names, connoting something a potential enemy would definitely want to avoid. First suggested by Jack Northrop himself, the name originally stemmed from a classic Lewis Carroll poem. Nevertheless, despite numerous early setbacks and systems failures, the SNARK went on to achieve brief operational status as America's first true intercontinental-range ballistic missile whose key attribute was its sheer potency as a weapon system. To quote a Northrop ad in 1959, "No defensive strategy yet conceived can stop the Snarks in mass attack!"

Originally designated as the B-62, the SNARK began development in 1947 as an interim surface-to-surface weapon before such large ICBMs as the Convair Atlas (B-65) and Martin Titan I (B-68) went into frontline service with the Strategic Air Command. It was launched from mobile or fixed platforms, boosted into flight by two massive Aerojet-General solid-propellant rockets of more than 130,000 lbs. of thrust each. SNARK's main engine was a 5,000-lb.-thrust Allison J33 turbojet in the smaller early N-25 test configuration, and then the new 10,500-lb.-thrust Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojet in the later N-69 test missiles and operational SM-62 versions. This was also the largest and heaviest of the winged jet-powered missiles, having a 67-ft. length and tipping the scales at more than 50,000 lbs at launch. Armament was designed to be a nuclear warhead from inception.

As you will see throughout this story, each missile established some unique aspect of aviation progress, and for the SNARK, that distinction was in bringing true intercontinental range, internal guidance, and nuclear lethality to the winged missile fleet. With a service ceiling in excess of 50,000 ft and a cruise speed of nearly Mach 1, the SNARK was all but indefensible to the enemy. Its flight path was controlled by the 24-hour Mark I internal celestial guidance system for operational downrange flights, while inflight radio control from an accompanying Northrop F-89D Scorpion was utilized during the test phase to guide N-69 test missiles back to Cape Canaveral for recovery on a special landing strip adjacent to the Test Center.

By 1958, after ten years of intense development and test work, the first operational SM-62 SNARK missile was ready for deployment to its new home at Presque Isle, Maine. Airlifted there in May 1959 by Douglas C-124 Globemaster and C-133 Cargomaster transports, the SNARKS were finally put on alert status for the first time on March 18, 1960. Operated by the 556th Strategic Missile Squadron of the newly-formed 702nd Strategic Missile Wing, SNARKS stood as silent sentinels ready to launch a retaliatory strike against the Soviet Union at a moment's notice.

In March 1961, President Kennedy ordered the SNARK unit de-activated as Atlas and Titan ICBMs assumed the mantle of being America's prime strategic nuclear weapons.

The First Missile Interceptor

Boeing's IM-99A was a much more advanced second-generation follow-on program to the earlier Fairchild Lark surface-to-air missile developed for the Navy, and was the Air Force's only operational missile interceptor. (Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules missiles were operated by the U.S. Army.) The BOMARC test program at Cape Canaveral was essentially a contractor-led project with the Air Force serving strictly in a support role, its name being an acronym for the prime contractor and its technical support entity, the Michigan Aeronautical Research Center (BOeing and M.A.R.C.). The IM-99 numerical designation followed recent manned aircraft interceptors such as the F-94, making the BOMARC the last Air Force aircraft before the supersonic Century Series jet fighters.

First of the winged missiles to be launched vertically, the 15,000-lb. BOMARC was a fully-automated self-contained vehicle (meaning no structure was jettisoned during flight) that increased interceptor performance capabilities to supersonic speeds of Mach 2.8, and exo-atmospheric altitudes of 100,000 ft. with the advanced IM-99B. Armed with either conventional or nuclear warheads that detonated with a proximity fuse, BOMARCs were controlled automatically from remote control centers up to 300 miles away from the launchers, and were based at various U.S. coastal cities in anticipation of large enemy bomber fleets suddenly appearing over the northern horizon.

Unlike earlier missile systems requiring hundreds of man hours for launch, the BOMARC was the first to offer automatic flight control through a new computer system called SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment). This IBM-developed system remotely controlled launches in Florida from as far away as upstate New York, and was proven in testing with the Air Force's Air Research and Development Command (ARDC). SAGE computers remotely launched and controlled several BOMARC flights from 1,500 miles away, with a total of 70 BOMARC launches having been completed from the beginning of flight testing in 1952 to its final test flight from Cape Canaveral in April 1960. BOMARCs also successfully intercepted several types of target drones, from slow-flying QB-17s to supersonic North American X-10s and Vought Regulus IIs.

Powerplants for the initial IM-99A consisted of both an Aerojet-General LR59 liquid-fuel rocket engine housed in the fuselage as a launch booster, and twin underwing 10,000-lb.-thrust Marquart RJ43 ramjet engines for the high-speed cruise-climb to intercept. The more advanced IM-99B was powered by a Thiokol XM-51solid-fuel booster rocket and more powerful Marquart ramjets. First production IM-99As were rolled out in December 1957, and were based at Suffolk County AFB on eastern Long Island and McGuire AFB, New Jersey, for coverage of the east coast, as well as Travis AFB in California. By 1961, IM-99Bs were based at Niagara Falls, NY, Duluth, MN, Sacramento, CA, Everett, WA, and in several Canadian cities with the RCAF after cancellation of that country's CF-105 Arrow. A total of 700 BOMARCS were built by Boeing from 1957 to 1964, and IM-99Bs remained on operational status until the early-1970s.

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