MISSILE FAMILIES

Each of the armed services has a big family of missiles in operation or development. Outstanding items:

AIR FORCE

Falcon. Probably the most sophisticated missile now in large production is the small, graceful, air-to-air Falcon (Hughes Aircraft Co.). It is 6 1/2 ft. long, 6 in. in diameter, weighs 120 Ibs. Its guidance system contains as many electronic elements as four television sets, all crammed into the space of a 2-lb. coffee can. The Falcon is a good example of the complication of missiles. The fighter plane that carries them is guided by ground radar until it is 20 miles from an invading bomber. Then the fighter's own radar picks up the target, locks onto it, and analyzes its relative motion. During this phase, the slim Falcons under the fighter plane's wing are quiet and lifeless. When the target approaches the Falcons' range, the pilot throws a switch, and the Falcons wake up. Their little gyros spin; the antennae in their noses search for the enemy. What the Falcons' delicate senses are looking for is a stream of radar pulses reflected from the target. When they "see" it, their radars lock into place.

At the proper moment, a Falcon takes off with a great stab of flame. In seconds it reaches high supersonic speed. The nose strikes through the target's wing or body, and a charge of explosive detonates inside. When tested against a drone F-80 jet fighter, one of them flew up its tailpipe.

Bomarc (Boeing) is a supersonic, long-range antiaircraft missile launched from the ground. Boosted into the air by an Aerojet rocket motor, it flies during most of its course on two ram-jets (Marquardt Aircraft Co.). It carries a warhead whose fireball is capable of knocking out more than one bomber of an invading fleet. When in operation, the Bomarc will be stationed in sheds on likely tracks of enemy bombers. Designed to be fired at a moment's notice, it can cover several hundred miles while a manned interceptor is getting clear of the ground.

Navako (North American) still has high priority. A long-range missile, it has wings, flies in the atmosphere much more slowly than a ballistic missile in dragless space, is therefore more vulnerable to enemy attack. But it has advantages. Carrying a thermonuclear warhead, it steers by the stars. An amazing little instrument picks out a succession of stars, even in daytime, and navigates by them like a ship at sea. Unlike the ICBM, the Navaho can be instructed to zigzag and feint. When the Navaho nears its target, it can feel for the warmth of a darkened city.

ARMY

The Army's territory is ground-based antiaircraft weapons and surface-to-surface missiles of anything except extreme range. Army doctrine is that missiles are fine things, but they must be rugged, transportable, and easily concealed. Most important of all, they must be "G.I.-proof"; they will be under the care of plain soldiers, who will drop them, kick them, neglect them, spill ketchup on them. If made like laboratory instruments, they will not perform on the battlefield worth a G.I. damn.

Nike. In the antiaircraft division, the Army has the well-publicized Nike (rhymes with Mikey), a liquid-fuel rocket launched by a solid-fuel booster and steered toward invading bombers by radio. The Nike dates back to the Keller era and is not the last word, but the Army believes that it will hit any attacking bomber sent over in the near future. Admittedly the Nike is a point defense weapon with only moderate lateral range. But the Army has so many Nike batteries at strategic points that their ranges already overlap.

Redstone. The Army's most ambitious weapon is the Redstone, a surface-to-surface ballistic rocket designed at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala., with the help of 120 German V-2 experts. Led by Wernher von Braun, they have given their new country the biggest rocket that has actually been flown. It is a great, sharp-nosed metal cylinder. In accordance with Army doctrine, it is tough, can stand quick transportation and quick firing from enemy-influenced territory. Tested many times from the monstrous steel tower that sticks up above the scrub palmetto of Cape Canaveral, Fla., the Redstone is a vast improvement over its ancestral V2, both in range, guidance and warhead. The Army is confident that after moderate changes it will reach to 1,500 miles. The Redstone is the reason why the Army has been given a crack at the IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles), which have the same urgent priority as the ICBM. The Army intends to carry Redstone by air. Says Lieut. General James M. Gavin, head of Army Research and Development: "We want to be able to put it in cargo airplanes along with all its auxiliaries, fly it to Thailand or the Greenland icecap, and fire it a couple of hours after we land." Below the range of the Redstone, the Army is nursing a whole series of surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.

Corporal is a result of the Korean war, when Army chiefs called for the best missile that could be put into production almost immediately. The best proved to be a moderate-range research rocket developed by Caltech's Jet Propulsion Center. It was a scientist's baby, unduly complicated. Corporal units are ready for action; but there are worried doubts about its reliability.

Little John is a "free" (unguided) rocket descended from the crude but operational Honest John. It is small enough to be transported in ordinary trucks, and will do the duty of divisional artillery. Little John is big enough to carry an atomic charge, and many can be fired at the same time, so the effect behind enemy lines should be considerable.

NAVY

Like the Army, the Navy will specialize in antiaircraft weapons and surface-to-surface missiles of all except extreme range.

Terrier. A small, solid-fuel antiaircraft missile, it is already installed on missile ships. Its range is short, and it will probably be replaced by the Tales, a rocket-ram-jet bird.

Later, the Navy's surface vessels will carry offensive missiles, but life in war may be rough for surface ships, so the Navy is thinking hard about launching its missiles from submarines near an enemy coast.

Best trick of all in the Navy's future will be to launch missiles from submarines submerged. If the submarine is nuclear, with an almost unlimited cruising period, it can be stationed for months off an enemy coast. This will make it a fine retaliatory weapon.

The submarine will be specially built with a watertight chamber to hold the great missile. It will poke to the surface an instrument to tell it exactly where it is. Then, at its leisure in darkness and silence, far below wave action, it will open its missile chamber. The missile will tilt to the vertical. When all is ready, it will rise from the sea in a flood of flame and a cloud of steam.

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