The AN/ASG-18 Fire Control System produced by

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace company, aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes ...

was a prototype airborne

fire control radar A fire-control radar (FCR) is a radar that is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and range rate) to a fire-control system in order to direct weapons such that they hit a target. They are sometim ...

system for the planned

North American XF-108 Rapier The North American XF-108 Rapier was a proposed long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft designed by North American Aviation intended to defend the United States from supersonic Soviet Union, Soviet strategic bombers. The aircraft would hav ...

interceptor aircraft, and the

Lockheed YF-12 The Lockheed YF-12 is an American Mach number, Mach 3+ capable, high-altitude interceptor aircraft, interceptor prototype, developed and manufactured by American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. The interceptor was developed duri ...

for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. It was the US's first

Pulse-Doppler radar A pulse-Doppler radar is a radar system that determines the range to a target using pulse-timing techniques, and uses the Doppler effect of the returned signal to determine the target object's velocity. It combines the features of pulse radars and ...

, giving it

look-down/shoot-down A radar system has look-down/shoot-down capability if it can detect, track and guide a weapon to an air target that (as seen by the radar) is silhouetted against the ground. Problem and naming Airborne intercept radar relying exclusively on time ...

capability, and was also the first

track while scan Track-while-scan (TWS) is a mode of radar operation in which the radar allocates part of its power to tracking a target or targets (up to forty with modern radar) while part of its power is allocated to scanning. It is similar to but functions diff ...

radar (could track one target at a time). This was paired with an

infrared search and track (IRST) An Infrared Search and Track (IRST) system (sometimes known as infrared sighting and tracking) is a method for detecting and tracking objects which give off infrared radiation, such as the infrared signatures of jet aircraft and helicopters.Mahu ...

system. Range of the radar was estimated at between , with reliable detection of bomber-sized targets at . The installation itself was massive, weighing , and taking up most of the nose of the aircraft. The system was to be used with the Hughes AIM-47 Falcon missile, which also had a range of about 100 miles. While development work was done with the XF-108, the AN/ASG-18 and Falcon missiles were first tested on a highly modified

Convair B-58 Hustler The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...

bomber. To fit the radar, the nose was lengthened nearly , and the infrared sensors were mounted on either side of the forward fuselage. The resulting nose shape led to it being nicknamed "''Snoopy''". A single missile was housed in a specially built pod underneath the fuselage. Before the test "Snoopy" could fly, the XF-108 program was cancelled, and the proposed

interceptor was to instead receive the radar/missile system pair. Tests of the system were conducted first in 1960 and until 1963 only on the modified B-58, after which the YF-12 took over until the cancellation of the whole program in 1966.Check-Six.com - B-58 'Snoopy' - Radar testbed
/ref> In accordance with the

Joint Electronics Type Designation System The Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), which was previously known as the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System (AN System. JAN) and the Joint Communications-Electronics Nomenclature System, is a method developed by the U.S. War Depa ...

(JETDS), the "''AN/ASG-18''" designation represents the 18th design of an Army-Navy airborne electronic device for special fire control equipment. The JETDS system also now is used to name all

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

electronic systems.

References

See Also