The AGM-80 Viper was an

air-to-surface missile An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...

developed by the Chrysler Corporation Missile Division in the 1960s for use by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. Based on the

AGM-12 Bullpup The AGM-12 Bullpup is a short-range air-to-ground missile developed by Martin Marietta for the US Navy. It is among the earliest precision guided air-to-ground weapons and the first to be mass produced. It first saw operational use in 1959 on th ...

, the program was cancelled early in trials. Viper was designed as a "self-guided standoff munition" for use in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (" Iron Hand") role. The Viper, based on the AGM-12C/E Bullpup missile, was fitted with an

inertial guidance An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors ( gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (dire ...

system, and had a

radar altimeter A radar altimeter (RA), also called a radio altimeter (RALT), electronic altimeter, reflection altimeter, or low-range radio altimeter (LRRA), measures altitude above the terrain presently beneath an aircraft or spacecraft by timing how long it t ...

-based fuse to ensure an airburst of the weapon's bomblet payload. It was developed in competition with the

AGM-79 Blue Eye The AGM-79 Blue Eye was an air-to-ground missile prototype, developed by the United States in the 1960s Design and development The Blue Eye was a development of the AGM-12 Bullpup, intended to provide a more advanced homing system. The Bullpup w ...

missile, but was cancelled in the early 1970s, shortly after the start of flight tests of the prototype missiles, designated XAGM-80A.

References

AGM-080 Abandoned military rocket and missile projects of the United States {{missile-stub