The Northrop SM-62 Snark was an early intercontinental range ground-launched cruise missile that could carry a W39 thermonuclear warhead. Though the Snark was in training by the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command from 1958 through 1961, it was only deployed as an operational missile for less than a year during 1961. It represented an important step in weapons technology during the Cold War. The Snark was named by Jack Northrop and took its name from the author Lewis Carroll's character the "snark". The Snark was the longest range surface-to-surface cruise missile 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.

Design and development

thumb|Display at the [[National Museum of the United States Air Force]]

Project Mastiff, to create a missile for delivery for an atom bomb began immediately after the existence of the atomic bomb was revealed. Due to protracted security concerns of the Manhattan Project involving details of arming, fuzing, and detonating systems Project Mastiff was thwarted by security inhibitions invoked by the atomic weapons program. The Army Air Force's Project Mastiff became a years long "Fiasco" Despite the failure of Project Mastiff the Army Air Force started a group of programs intended to create atomic bomb carrying missiles.

During the significant first decade of American strategic missile development the Air Force's attention was upon developing winged air-breathing missiles. The designations for individual programs changed numerous times due to changes in organizations, roles, fashion, and thus they are best known by their MX numbers. The guidance test missile was the Northrop N-25. Development of the heavy stellar navigation system intended for the N-25 Snark was very difficult and required many hundreds of hours of flight aboard aircraft. Twenty-one flights of the N-25 missile occurred at Holloman AFB, New Mexico between April 1951 and March 1952.

A new requirement for intercontinental range required a new, larger missile the design of which was deemed the B-62. The Northrop N-69 development vehicle, was originally powered by a J71 engine and in later variants a J57. Facilities at Cape Canaveral were still being constructed and at the same time aerodynamic problems with the intended dive by the Snark on the target persisted, delaying development. Extensive flight testing, weight reduction efforts, an improved 24 hour stellar navigation system, and the addition of pylon fuel tanks below the wings to restore range capabilities eventually resulted in the N-69E Snark which became the prototype for the SM-62 Intercontinental Missile (ICM) By 1958, the celestial navigation system used by the Snark allowed its most accurate test, which appeared to fall wide of the target. 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 , and the inability of the Snark to detect countermeasures and perform evasive maneuvers also made it a questionable strategic deterrent. Exercises in 1960 indicated that only 20% of the missiles at Presque Isle met SAC standards of effectiveness. The duration of the SM-62 in active service was brief before the reality which had haunted the program since the Teapot Committee caught up with it. In March 1961, President John F. Kennedy declared the Snark to be "obsolete and of marginal military value", and on 25 June 1961, the 702nd Wing was inactivated.

Many in the U.S. Military were surprised the Snark, due to its dubious guidance system, was ever operational. The most accurate of the seven full-range flights from June 1958 and May 1959 had fallen left of and short the target. In flight tests many were lost. A missile launched from Cape Canaveral in 1956 that was supposed to fly to Puerto Rico and back, flew so far off course that it was last seen on radar off the coast of Venezuela. The wreckage of the wayward Snark missile was found in northeastern Brazil in 1983. Many of those connected with the program commented in jest "that the Caribbean was full of 'Snark infested waters'." The Snark suffered from deficiencies in missile technology, design, and development which delayed its entry into service until it had been overtaken by development of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. The ICBM was capable of delivering the same thermonuclear weapon over the same distance much faster and without possibility of interception.

  • National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
  • Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebraska, near Omaha.
  • Hill Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah.
  • National Museum of Nuclear Science & History near Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Alert Operations and the Strategic Air Command, 1957-1991. Office of the Historian, Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska (1991
  • Carroll, Lewis and Martin Gardner. Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark: The Annotated Snark. London: William Kaufmann, 1982. .
  • Cleary, Mark C. The 6555th Missile and Space Launches Through 1970. 45th Space Wing History Office, Patrick AFB, Florida. 1990
  • Gibson, James N. Nuclear Weapons of the United States: An Illustrated History. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1996. .
  • Hansen, Chuck. U.S. Nuclear Weapons - The Secret History. Arlington, Texas: Aerofax, 1988. .
  • "From Snark to Peacekeeper". Office of the Historian, Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska (1990).
  • Lonnquest, John C, and Winkler, David F. To Defend and Deter: the Legacy of the United States Cold War Missile Program. Champaign, Illinois: US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories/Defense Publishing Service, Rock Island, Illinois 1996.
  • Rosenberg, Max. The U.S. Air Force and The National Guided Missile Program 1944-1950. USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, USAF, Washington D.C. 1988
  • Werrel, Kenneth, The Case Study of Failure. American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Fall 1988
  • Werrel, Kenneth, The Evolution of the Cruise Missile. Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. 1985
  • Zaloga, Steven J. "Chapter 5." Target America: The Soviet Union and the Strategic Arms Race, 1945–1964. New York: Presidio Press, 1993. .
  • The Day They Lost The Snark by J.P. Anderson, Air Force Magazine article about a Snark that was test-fired and rumored to have been found in Brazil
  • Snark Lands on Skids With Little Damage
  • The Dawn of the Computer Age
  • Excellent article on the Snark on FAS.org
  • "Our First Guided Missileaires", Popular Mechanics, July 1954, detailed article on Snark and the USAF school to train personnel for it