MIM-46 Mauler - Background - Cancellation

Cancellation

By this point there were serious doubts that the system would be entering service any time soon. On 16 September 1963 the Army Materiel Command asked the Aviation and Missile Command to study adapting the Navy's AIM-9 Sidewinder missile as the basis of a short-range anti-aircraft system. They suggested that the conversion would be simple, but the missile's long lock-on time and optical guidance would make it ineffective in close combat.

Based on this potential solution to the air defense problem, the Army Staff, supported by the Army Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Bliss, started a new study under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Hirsch. Known as the "Interim Field Army Air Defense Study" (IFAADS), it called for a multi-layer system consisting of an adapted Sidewinder as a missile component known as the MIM-72 Chaparral, a short-range gun component using the M61 Vulcan known as the M163 VADS, and the separate AN/MPQ-49 Forward Area Alerting Radar that would support both by sending digital information to displays in those platforms. All of these would be further supported by the FIM-43 Redeye man-portable missile. Although the resulting composite system would not be nearly as capable as Mauler, it could be in service much sooner and provide some cover while a more capable system developed.

In November 1963 Mauler was re-directed as a pure technology demonstration program. Several modified versions using simpler systems were proposed, but even these would not have entered service before 1969. Tests with the GTV's continued until the entire program was cancelled outright in November 1965. Chaparral adapted the Mauler's IR seeker, which was greatly improved over the versions in the original AIM-9C.