AGM-28 Hound Dog: Американская крылатая ракета для прорыва советской ПВО

The North American Aviation AGM 28 Hound Dog was a supersonic, turbojet propelled, nuclear armed, air launched cruise missile developed in 1959 for the United States Air Force. It was primarily designed to be capable of attacking Soviet ground based air defense sites prior to a potential air attack by B 52 Stratofortress long range bombers during the Cold War. The Hound Dog was first given the designation B 77, then redesignated GAM 77, and finally AGM 28. It was conceived as a temporary standoff missile for the B 52, to be used until the GAM 87 Skybolt air launched ballistic missile was available. Instead, the Skybolt was cancelled within a few years and the Hound Dog continued to be deployed for a total of 15 years until its replacement by newer missiles, including the AGM 69 SRAM and then the AGM 86 ALCM.

During the 1950s the US became aware of developments regarding 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. The deployment of large numbers of SAMs placed this force at some risk of being rendered ineffective. One solution to this problem is to extend the range of the bomb, either through glide bomb techniques, or more practically, by mounting them in a short to medium range missile. This allows the weapon to be fired while the bomber remains outside the range of the enemy's defensive missiles. Since the Soviet air defenses were static and easy to spot from aerial reconnaissance or satellite reconnaissance photos, the Air Force planned to use a long range cruise missile to attack the air defense bases before the bombers got within their range. The SA 2 Guideline missile had a maximum range of about 30 kilometers at that time. Since the bombers would be approaching the sites as the weapon flew towards it, their own guided missiles would have to be launched well before it entered this range. The weapon needed to fly fast enough and far enough that the bomber was at a safe distance when the weapon reached the target. 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 due to the much longer range of the fighters compared to the SAMs. A missile with these capabilities was called for in General Operational Requirement 148, which was released on March 15, 1956, known as WS 131B. GOR 148 called for a supersonic air to surface cruise missile with a weight of not more than (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, On August 21, 1957, North American Aviation was awarded a contract to develop Weapon System 131B, which included the Hound Dog missile.

The Hound Dog missile's airframe was an adaptation of technology developed in the SM 64 Navaho missile, adapted for launching from the B 52. The Hound Dog's design was based on that of the Navaho G 38 missile, which featured small delta wings and forward canards. The thermonuclear warhead carried by the Hound Dog was the W28 Class D. The Hound Dog already had a low head on radar cross section because of its highly swept delta wings. This low radar cross section was lowered further by replacing its nose cap, engine intake spike, and engine duct with new radar absorbent material components that scattered or absorbed radar energy. It has been reported that these radar cross section improvements were removed as Hound Dogs were withdrawn from service. The GAM 77A version of the GAM 77 also included a new Kollsman Instruments KS 140 star tracker that was integrated with the N 6 inertial navigation system. This unit replaced the star tracker that had been located in the B 52's wing pylon. The fuel capacity of the GAM 77A was increased during this upgrade. A radar altimeter was added to the missile to provide (vertical) terrain following radar capability to the Hound Dog. 428 Hound Dog missiles were upgraded to the GAM 77A configuration by North American. 66 GAM 77A Hound Dog missiles were launched for testing and training up through April 1973. In 1972, the Bendix Corporation was awarded a contract to develop an anti radiation missile passive radar seeker to guide the Hound Dog missile to antennas transmitting radar signals. A Hound Dog with this radar seeker was test flown in 1973, but never mass produced.

Where it received the name Hound Dog has been the source of argument for decades. In recent years, however, people have given credit to fans in the Air Force of Elvis Presley's version of "Hound Dog".