AGM-69 SRAM
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The Boeing AGM-69 SRAM (Short-range attack missile) was a nuclear air-to-surface missile designed to replace the older AGM-28 Hound Dog stand-off missile.
The requirement for the weapon was issued by the Strategic Air Command of the USAF in 1964, and the resultant AGM-69A SRAM entered service in 1972 It was carried by the B-52, the FB-111A, and, for a very short period starting in 1986, by the B-1Bs based at Dyess AFB in Texas. SRAMs were also carried by the B-1Bs based at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota up until late 1993.
SRAM had an inertial navigation system as well as a radar altimeter which enabled the missile to be launched in either a semi-ballistic or terrain-following flight path. The SRAM was also capable of performing one "major maneuver" during its flight which gave the missile the capability of reversing its course and attacking targets that were behind it. The missile had a Circular Error Probable (CEP) of about 1,400 ft (430 m). The SRAM used a single W69 nuclear warhead with a selectable yield of 7 or 210 kilotons.
SRAM could be carried individually or on an eight-round rotary launcher mounted in the weapons bay of a B-52 or B-1B. The B-52 was capable of carrying eight on a rotary launcher in the aft bomb bay and 12 on its underwing pylons; the B-1B could carry eight internally and 14 externally; the FB-111A could carry two internally and four underwing. On the FB-111A, the externally-mounted missiles required the addition of a tailcone to reduce aerodynamic drag during supersonic flight.
About 1,500 missiles were built at a cost of about $592,000 each by the time production ended in 1975.
An upgraded AGM-69B was proposed in the late 1970s, with an upgraded motor to be built by Thiokol and a W80 warhead, but it was cancelled (along with the B-1A) in 1978. Various plans for alternative guidance schemes, including an anti-radar seeker for use against air defense installations and even a possible air-to-air missile version, came to nothing.
A new weapon, the AGM-131 SRAM II, began development in 1981, intended to arm the resurrected B-1B, but it was cancelled in 1991 by then president George Bush along with most of the U.S. Strategic Modernization effort (including PeaceKeeper Mobile (Rail) Garrison, Small ICBM and Minuteman III modernization) in an effort by the U.S. to ease nuclear pressure with the disintegrating Soviet Union.
The AGM-69A was finally retired in 1993 over growing concerns about the safety of its warhead. With the end of the Cold War it is unlikely to be replaced in the immediate future.
The SRAM was effectively replaced by the ALCM cruise missile, which has longer range, though easier to intercept. The Russian counterpart to the B-1 Lancer deploys a missile which looks strikingly like the SRAM, also on a rotary launcher.
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[edit] Service history
The number of AGM-69 missiles in service, by year:
- 1972 - 227
- 1973 - 651
- 1974 - 1149
- 1975 - 1451-
- 1976 - 1431
- 1977 - 1415
- 1978 - 1408
- 1979 - 1396
- 1980 - 1383
- 1981 - 1374
- 1982 - 1332
- 1983 - 1327
- 1984 - 1309
- 1985 - 1309
- 1986 - 1128
- 1987 - 1125
- 1988 - 1138
- 1989 - 1120
- 1990 - 1048
[edit] Specifications
- Length: 190 in. (4.83 m) with tail fairing, 168 in. (4.27 m) without tail fairing
- Diameter: 17.5 in. (445 mm)
- Wing span: 30 in (760 mm)
- Launch weight: 2,230 lbs. (1010 kg)
- Maximum speed: Mach 3.5
- Maximum range: 35-105 statute miles (56-169 km) depending on flight profile
- Powerplant: 1 × Lockheed SR75-LP-1 two stage solid-fuel rocket motor
- Guidance: General Precision/Kearfott KT-76 inertial and Stewart-Warner radar altimeter
- CEP: 1,400 ft. (430 m)
- Warhead: W-69 thermonuclear (200 kT)
[edit] References
- Gunston, Bill (1979). Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Rockets & Missiles. London: Salamander Books. ISBN 0-517-26870-1
