The AGM-76 Falcon was an air-to-surface

anti-radiation missile An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be t ...

developed 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 ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Intended as a conversion using off-the-shelf parts, it did not go into operational service.

Overview

During 1966, the United States Air Force began development of a heavy anti-radiation missile for use against

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

radars in Vietnam. Using existing airframes from the cancelled

AIM-47 Falcon The Hughes AIM-47 Falcon, originally GAR-9, was a very long-range high-performance air-to-air missile that shared the basic design of the earlier AIM-4 Falcon. It was developed in 1958 along with the new Hughes AN/ASG-18 radar fire-control syst ...

heavy air-to-air missile project combined with the

seeker head Seeker may refer to: People * Seekers, a 17th-century religious group, forerunner of the Quakers * Seeker (Anabaptism), a person perceived by Anabaptists like the Amish and by Quakers as likely to become an adherent * Seeker, a person seeking in ...

of the

AGM-45 Shrike AGM-45 Shrike is an American anti-radiation missile designed to home in on hostile anti-aircraft radar. The Shrike was developed by the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in 1963 by mating a seeker head to the rocket body of an AIM-7 Sparrow. ...

anti-radiation missile, the AGM-76A was fitted with a warhead of the type used in the

Mark 81 bomb The Mark 81 (Mk 81) general-purpose bomb (nicknamed "Firecracker") is the smallest of the Mark 80 series of low- drag general-purpose bombs. Development and deployment Developed for United States military forces in the 1950s, it was first used ...

. Test-firings of AGM-76As were conducted from

McDonnell F-4D Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowe ...

Republic F-105F Thunderchief The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American supersonic fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Viet ...

, and

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

Grumman A-6B Intruder aircraft, however the missile was not put into production, the AGM-45 and

AGM-78 Standard ARM The AGM-78 Standard ARM was an anti-radiation missile developed by General Dynamics, United States. It was built on the airframe of the RIM-66 Standard surface-to-air missile, resulting in a very large weapon with considerable range, allowing it ...

becoming the standard anti-radiation missiles used by the United States.

Operators

* : The

cancelled the AGM-76 prior to service entry.

References

{{US missiles Cold War air-to-surface missiles of the United States Anti-radiation missiles of the United States Abandoned military rocket and missile projects of the United States