AGM-28 Hound Dog - Development

Development

During the 1950s the US became aware of developments the Soviet Union's surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), notably at large installations being constructed around Moscow. At the time the entire nuclear deterrent of the United States was based on manned strategic bombers, both with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy, and the deployment of large numbers of SAMs placed this force at some risk of being rendered ineffective. The importance of having the ability to penetrate the Soviet air-defense system was later described by Senator John F. Kennedy in a speech to the American Legion convention in Miami, Florida, on October 18, 1960: "We must take immediate steps to protect our present nuclear striking force from surprise attack. Today, more than 90 percent of our retaliatory capacity is made up of aircraft and missiles which have fixed, un-protectable bases whose location is known to the Russians. We can only do this by providing SAC with the capability of maintaining a continuous airborne alert, and by pressing projects such as the Hound Dog air-ground missile, which will enable manned bombers to penetrate Soviet defenses with their weapons".

The Air Force's solution to this problem was the introduction of stand-off missiles. Since the Soviet air-defenses were static and easy to spot from aerial reconnaissance or satellite reconnaissance photos, the plan was to use a long-range cruise missile to attack these air-defense bases before the bombers got into range of them. The SA-2 Guideline missile had a maximum range of about 30 kilometers at that time, but since the bombers would be approaching the sites, their own guided missiles would have to be launched well-before it entered this SAM range. If the American missile was to be used to attack enemy air bases as well, an extended range of several hundred kilometers would be needed. A missile with these capabilities was called for in General Operational Requirement 148, which was released on March 15, 1956. GOR 148 called for a supersonic air-to-surface cruise missile with a weight of not more than 12,500 lb (fully fueled and armed) to be carried in pairs by the B-52 Stratofortress. Each B-52 would carry two of the missiles, one under each wing, on a pylon located between the B-52's fuselage and its inboard pair of engines.

Both Chance Vought and North American Aviation submitted GAM-77 proposals to the USAF in July 1957, and both based on their earlier work on long-range ground-launched cruise missiles. Vought's submission was for an air-launched version of the Regulus missile, developed for the US Navy, while North American's was adapted from their Navajo missile. On August 21, 1957, North American Aviation was awarded a contract to develop Weapon System 131B, which included the Hound Dog missile.