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From: Miloch <Miloch_member@newsguy.com>
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Subject: SM-62 Snark
Date: 26 Mar 2018 03:37:22 -0700
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-62_Snark
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/america-s-first-strategic-cruise-missile-was-totally-useless-830f6c76c009
The Northrop SM-62 Snark was an early-model intercontinental range
ground-launched cruise missile that could carry a W39 thermonuclear warhead. The
Snark was deployed by the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command from
1958 through 1961. It represented an important step in weapons technology during
the Cold War. The Snark took its name from the author Lewis Carroll's character
the "snark".
The Snark missile was developed to present a nuclear deterrent to the Soviet
Union and other potential enemies at a time when Intercontinental ballistic
missiles (ICBMs) were still in development. The Snark was the only
surface-to-surface cruise missile with such a long range that was ever deployed
by the U.S. Air Force. Following the deployment of ICBMs, the Snark was rendered
obsolete, and it was removed from deployment in 1961.
subsonic design (the MX775A Snark) and a supersonic design (the MX775B
Boojum).(From the same poem: "The snark was a boojum, you see.") Budget
reductions threatened the project in its first year, but the intervention of Air
Force General Carl Spaatz and the industrialist Jack Northrop saved the project.
Despite this, its funding by Congress was low, and this program was dogged by
changes in specifications. The earliest planned due date in 1953 passed with the
design still in development, and the Strategic Air Command was gradually
becoming less supportive of it. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered
that top priority be assigned to ICBMs and their associated guided missile
programs.
In 1957, tests of the Snark showed an estimated circular error probable (CEP) of
just 17 nautical miles (31.5 kilometers). By 1958, the celestial navigation
system used by the Snark allowed its most accurate test, which appeared to fall
four nautical miles (7.4 km) short of the target. However, this apparent failure
was at least partially caused by the British Navigation Charts used to determine
the position of Ascension Island being based on position determinations less
accurate than those used by the Snark. The missile landed where Ascension Island
would be found if more accurate navigation methods had been used when developing
the chart. However, even with the decreased CEP, the design was notoriously
unreliable, with the majority of tests suffering mechanical failure thousands of
miles before reaching the target. Other factors, such as the reduction in
operating altitude from 150,000 to 55,000 feet (46,000 to 17,000 meters), and
the inability of the Snark to detect countermeasures and perform evasive
maneuvers also made it a questionable strategic deterrent.
The jet propelled 20.5 meter-long Snark missile had a top speed of about 650 mph
(1,046 km/h) and a maximum range of about 5,500 nautical miles (10,200
kilometers). Its complicated celestial navigation system gave it a claimed CEP
of about 8,000 feet (2.4 kilometers).
The Snark was an air-breathing missile, intended to be launched from a
truck-mounted platform by two solid-fueled rocket booster engines. The Snark
next switched to an internal turbojet engine for the rest of its flight. The
engine was a Pratt and Whitney J57, which was the first jet engine featuring a
thrust of 10,000 pounds (44 kilonewtons) or more. Since the Snark lacked a
horizontal tail surface, it used elevons as its primary flight control surfaces,
and it flew with an unusual nose-high angle during level flight. During the
final phase of its flight, its nuclear warhead would have separated from its
fuselage and then followed a ballistic trajectory towards its target. Due to the
abrupt shift in its center of gravity caused by separation, the fuselage would
have performed an abrupt pitch-up maneuver in order to avoid a collision with
the warhead.
One unusual capability of the Snark missile was its ability to fly away from its
launch point for up to 11 hours, and then return for a landing. If its warhead
did not detach from its body, then the Snark could be flown repeatedly. Lacking
any landing gear, it would have been necessary for the Snark to skid to a stop
on a flat, level surface. A runway at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is
still known as the "Skid Strip".
Many in the U.S. Military were surprised the Snark, due to its dubious guidance
system, was ever operational. In flight tests many were lost. A missile launched
in 1956 went so far off course that it landed in North-Eastern Brazil, where it
wasn't found until 1983. Many of those connected with the program commented in
jest "That the Caribbean was full of 'Snark infested waters.
Specifications
Weight
48,150 pounds (21,850 kilogram) without boosters; 60,000 pounds (27,200 kg) with
boosters
Length
67 feet, two inches (20.5 meters)
Warhead
W39 thermonuclear warhead (explosive yield: 3.8 megatons)
Engine
one Pratt & Whitney J57 jet engine; and two Aerojet solid-propellant rocket
boosters
J57 turbojet: 10,500 pounds (46.7 kilonewtons) of thrust; booster rockets:
130,000 pounds (580 kilonewtons) of thrust
Wingspan
42 feet, three inches (12.9 meters)
Operational range
5,500 nautical miles (10,200 kilometers)
Flight ceiling
50,250 feet (15,300 meters)
Speed
565 nautical mile/hour (1,050 kilometer/hour)
Guidance system
astro-inertial guidance with CEP of about 8,000 feet (2.4 kilometers).
Launch platform
mobile launcher
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