The
Northrop SM-62 Snark is an early-model
intercontinental range ground-launched
cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...
that could carry a
W39 thermonuclear warhead
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a low ...
. The Snark was deployed 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 ...
's
Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...
from 1958 through 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
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
's character the
"snark".
[ ‘’From Snark to Peacekeeper. Office of the Historian, Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska (1990).] The Snark was the only surface-to-surface
cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...
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.
Design and Development
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 the Army Air Force’s new Project Mastiff was a years long “Fiasco”
[Rosenberg, Max (1988). ‘’The U.S. Air Force and The National Guided Missile Program 1944-1950''. USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, USAF, Washington D.C.] 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 air-breathing missiles.
[Lonnquest, John C., Winkler, David F. (1996). ‘’To Defend and Deter: the Legacy of the United States Cold War Missile Program‘’. U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, Champaign, Illinois.] Designations for individual programs changed over time and thus they are best known by their MX numbers.
Following the end of WWII the Guided Missile Committee decided that the development of guided missiles should be shifted from the existing ad hoc programs in order to concentrate upon basic research.
Northrop was selected to study two concepts, the sub-sonic MX-775A Snark, and the super-sonic
MX775B ''Boojum''.
The defense budget cuts of what was called the Black Christmas of 1946 drastically reduced the number of Army missile programs.
Few of those programs which survived resembled the later missiles which they eventually produced.
In March of 1947 the MX-775B Boojum supersonic 5,000 mile range and not the subsonic MX-775A Snark was the only Northrop program.
By March 1948 the MX-775A Snark was the preferred missile while the super-sonic MX-775B Boojum had been reduced in importance to a speculative prospect.
Further intense budgetary pressure in 1949 saw the USAF surface to surface missile program reduced to two programs of which one was the MX-775A Snark. By July 1950 the Snark program was further reduced to development of the guidance subsystem and creation of a guidance test vehicle.
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.
[Werrell, Kenneth (1988). ‘’The Case Study of Failure‘’ American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Fall 1988.] Twenty-one flights of the N-25 occurred at Holloman AFB, New Mexico between April 1951 and March 1952.
[Werrell, Kenneth (1985). ‘’The Evolution of the Cruise Missile‘’. Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.]
A new requirement for intercontinental range required a new, larger missile. The resulting Northrop N-69 was originally powered by a J71 engine and in later variants a J57.
While 10 of 25 N-25 missiles were recovered, only 11 of 39 N-69s were recovered.
As the available space for tests of an intercontinental ranged missile did not exist at Holloman, testing was moved to the Atlantic Missile Test Range at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Test Snarks were recovered to a runway at the
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station ...
which is still known as the "Skid Strip". Unfortunately facilities at Cape Canaveral were still being constructed at the same time aerodynamic problems with the intended dive by the Snark on the target persisted.
The Snark, which was originally projected to become operational in 1953, suffered a protracted test program which involved significant redesigns.
Development of the N-69 dragged on with many failures which caused wags to jest of the “Snark Infested Waters” off Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
As the prospective operational date of the Snark slipped evermore into the future the Strategic Air Command grew more skeptical of the missile. Criticism of the Snark grew from doubts by the Strategic Air Command, in 1951 to serious objections in 1954.
A high-level study by the Teapot Committee in early 1954 described the nascent Atlas ICBM project as beset by technical and administrative problems while advising that the ballistic missile offered the best means of delivering a thermonuclear weapon over intercontinental range.
Also in early 1954 the Strategic Missile Evaluation Committee concluded that the Snark was an “overly complex” and would not become operational until “substantially later” than scheduled.
The failure of the Snark to achieve the necessary accuracy for the original W-8 nuclear weapon (striking within 1,500 feet of target) was offset somewhat by the change to the much more powerful W-39-Y1 Mod 1 thermonuclear bomb (striking within 8,000 of target feet).
[Hansen, Chuck (1988). ''U.S. Nuclear Weapons - The Secret History''. Aerofax, Arlington Texas. ] 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 late 1957 N-69E Snarks had complete two flights down range to Ascension Island.
[ Cleary, Mark C. (1990) ‘’The 6555th Missile and Space Launches Through 1970”. 45th Space Wing History Office, Patric AFB, Florida).] Showing the Snark achieved an estimated
circular error probable
In the military science of ballistics, circular error probable (CEP) (also circular error probability or circle of equal probability) is a measure of a weapon system's precision. It is defined as the radius of a circle, centered on the mean, wh ...
(CEP) of . 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.
A total of 97 N-25, N69 and SM-62 Snarks tests were made between December of 1950 and December of 1960.
SAC then changed requirements to require the launch 20% of Snarks within 15 minutes of notification, 40% within 75 minutes, and all in four hours. A daunting requirement given the base design and requirements of the missile.
In late 1957 SAC’s 556 Strategic Missile Squadron launched its first N-69E to begin the Snark Employment and Suitability Test program.
In December 1957 the 556th Strategic Missile Squadron was activated and began training to launch operational SM-62 Snark Missiles. In January 1958, the
Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...
began accepting delivery of Snark missiles at
Patrick Air Force Base Patrick may refer to:
*Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name
*Patrick (surname), list of people with this name
People
*Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint
*Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...
for training, and in 1959, the
702d Strategic Missile Wing
7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube.
As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, ...
was formed. Snark launches for developmental purposes continued through 1958 but the training activities of the 556th were reduced. Training of Snark missile men at the Cape continued until December 1959.
From December 1950 until December 1960 118 N-25, N-69 and SM-62 test flights were made.
Technical description
![SM 62 Snark HAFB](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/SM_62_Snark_HAFB.jpg)
The
jet propelled 20.5 meter-long Snark missile had a top speed of about and a maximum range of about . Its complicated
celestial navigation
Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space (or on the surface of ...
system gave it a claimed
CEP of about .
The Snark was an air-breathing missile, intended to be launched from a truck-mounted platform by two
solid-fueled rocket
A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants ( fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Arabs, Chinese, Persian ...
booster engines. The Snark was propelled by an internal
turbojet engine
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...
for the rest of its flight. The engine was a
Pratt and Whitney J57, which was the first jet engine featuring a thrust of or more.
Since the Snark lacked a horizontal tail surface, it used
elevon
Elevons or tailerons are aircraft control surfaces that combine the functions of the elevator (used for pitch control) and the aileron (used for roll control), hence the name. They are frequently used on tailless aircraft such as flying wings. ...
s 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
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
would have separated from its
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
and then followed a ballistic trajectory towards its target. Due to the sudden shift in its
center of gravity
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the distributed mass sums to zero. Thi ...
caused by separation, the fuselage would have performed an abrupt pitch-up maneuver in order to avoid a collision with the warhead. The resulting break-up of the missiles structure added clutter which confused enemy radar.
Operational history
In May 1957, a Detachment of Air Force instructors was formed at
Amarillo Air Force Base
, Texas as the first cadre of Air Force personnel supporting an Intercontinental missile system. None of the detachment members had any previous training or experience in missile maintenance. They were trained at the Northrop factory in California and then returned to Amarillo to establish the training school for the Snark maintenance personnel.
On January 1, 1959 the 702nd Strategic Missile Wing was activated at Presque Isle, Maine. On 27 May 1959,
Presque Isle Air Force Base
Presque Isle Air Force Base was a military installation of the United States Air Force located near Presque Isle, Maine. In the late 1950s and early 1960s it became a base for Strategic Air Command.
The original airport was constructed in 1930 ...
, Maine, the only Snark missile base, received its first missile. It was ten months before the 702nd placed its first Snark on Alert on March 18, 1960. The first far superior Atlas D had already gone on Alert on October 31, 1957.
[ ‘’Alert Operations and the Strategic Air Command, 1957-1991”. Office of the Historian, Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska (1991).] Exercises in 1960 indicated that only 20 percent of the missiles at Presque Isle met SAC standards of effectiveness.
Reliability improved over time with reliability achieving 95% in February 1961.
The 702nd Wing was not declared to be fully operational until February 1961. A total of 30 Snarks were deployed to the USAF'a first and only long-range cruise missile base.
[Gibson 1996, p. 151.] 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
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
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 4.2 nautical miles left of and .3 nautical miles 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 wayward wreckage of the Snark missile was found in
northeastern Brazil
The Northeast Region of Brazil ( pt, Região Nordeste do Brasil; ) is one of the five official and political regions of Brazil, regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Of Brazil's twenty-six state ...
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.
Surviving missiles
Five Snark missiles survive in museum collections. They are located as follows:
*
Air Force Space & Missile Museum at
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station ...
at
Cape Canaveral, Florida
Cape Canaveral ( es, Cabo Cañaveral, link=) is a city in Brevard County, Florida. The population was 9,912 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne– Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
After t ...
.
*
National Museum of the United States Air Force
The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the ...
at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...
in
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...
.
*
Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum
The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum is a museum focusing on aircraft and nuclear missiles of the United States Air Force during the Cold War. It is located near Ashland, Nebraska, along Interstate 80 southwest of Omaha. The objective o ...
in
Ashland, Nebraska
Ashland is a city in Saunders County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 2,453 at the 2010 census.
History
Ashland is located at the site of a low-water limestone ledge along the bottom of Salt Creek, an otherwise mud-bottomed stream ...
near Omaha.
*
Hill Aerospace Museum
Hill Aerospace Museum is a military aviation museum located at Hill Air Force Base in Roy, Utah. It is dedicated to the history of the base and aviation in Utah.
History
Preparations for a museum began in 1984, when ground was broken on an "Ae ...
at
Hill Air Force Base
Hill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force (USAF) base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and bordering the Cities of Layton, Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, and Sunset with its largest border immediately adjacent to ...
in
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...
.
*
National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History (formerly named National Atomic Museum) is a national repository of nuclear science information chartered by the 102nd United States Congress under Public Law 102-190, and located in unincorporated ...
near
Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy ...
in
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
.
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. .
External links
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 BrazilSnark Lands on Skids With Little Damage
The Dawn of the Computer Age
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sm-62 Snark
Cold War missiles of the United States
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sm-62 Snark
Cold War missiles of the United States
Nuclear cruise missiles of the United States">"Our First Guided Missileaires", ''Popular Mechanics,'' July 1954, detailed article on Snark and the USAF school to train personnel for it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sm-62 Snark
Cold War missiles of the United States
Nuclear cruise missiles of the United States
Cruise missiles of the Cold War
Northrop aircraft, B-062
Military equipment introduced in the 1950s