The AGM-124 Wasp is a missile developed by the United States. The Wasp grew out of the 1975 WAAM (Wide-Area Anti-Armour Munitions) program initiated by the
US 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 Sig ...
in order to develop a series of new
air-to-ground anti-armour weapons for
close-support aircraft. The three-pronged program led to the CBU-92/B ERAM (Extended Range Anti-Armour Munition), the CBU-90/B ACM (Anti-Armour Cluster Munition), and the Wasp anti-armour missile. The Wasp is regarded as the most advanced of these weapons.
Development began in 1979, with
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and ...
and
Hughes Aircraft
The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other pro ...
as the primary contractors. The specification called for a small missile which could be carried in large numbers by attack aircraft in multiple dispensers - the
A-10
The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1976, it is named for the Republic ...
was able to carry several 12 round launcher pods. The Boeing design was unsuccessful, and the USAF selected the Hughes Wasp missile.
The AGM-124A was a small weapon with folding wings and fins to reduce storage space within the launcher. It was intended to be launched in large numbers - 10 or more missiles launched nearly simultaneously was envisaged for a typical attack; the name Wasp derived from this "swarm" tactic. The missiles would follow a pre-programmed path to the target area before activating a
millimeter wave
Extremely high frequency (EHF) is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) designation for the band of radio frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum from 30 to 300 gigahertz (GHz). It lies between the super high frequency band and the ...
active radar homing
Active radar homing (ARH) is a missile guidance method in which a missile contains a radar transceiver (in contrast to semi-active radar homing, which uses only a receiver) and the electronics necessary for it to find and track its target ...
to identify and home on a specific target. This
high resolution
Image resolution is the detail an image holds. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail.
Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how cl ...
radar was able to distinguish targets even against enemy jamming and high background clutter from the ground.
Testing of the radar system began in 1981, and the first prototype AGM-124 took place in 1983. Production was planned for 1987, but in October 1983 the program was cancelled. Most of the other components of the WAAM program were also less than successful, with only the BLU-108/B Skeet submunition in use today.
Specifications
*''Length'' : 1.52 m (5 ft)
*''Wingspan'' : 51 cm (20 in)
*''Diameter'' : 20 cm (8 in)
*''Weight'' : 57 kg (125 lb)
*''Range'' :
*''Propulsion'' : Solid-fueled rocket motor
*''Warhead'' : Shaped charge
References
AGM-124
Anti-tank guided missiles of the Cold War
AGM-124
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