The GAM-63 RASCAL is a supersonic Air-to-surface missile that was developed by the Bell Aircraft Company. The RASCAL was the United States Air Force’s first nuclear armed standoff missile. The RASCAL was initially designated the ASM-A-2, then re-designated the B-63 in 1951 and finally re-designated the GAM-63 in 1955.

The name RASCAL was the acronym for RAdar SCAnning Link, the missile’s guidance system. The RASCAL project was cancelled in September 1958.

Document Archive

Historical Study on Aircraft and Weapon Systems Tested at the Air Force Missile Development Center  [359 Pages, 84.2MB]

GAM-63 Missile Development Program [39 Pages, 11.22MB]

HQ USAF Logistics Concept, GAM-63 Weapon System [20 Pages, 600kb]

The History of the RASCAL Missile, 1952-1958 [158 pages, 58MB]

Missile Logistics, Volume 1: Text (Historical Study No. 328). 1952-1958 [115 pages, 5.7mb]

Project RASCAL / Project Shrike, 31 March 1953 [88 Pages, 14.5MB]

R&D Information Report, Missile Logistics, 1951-1959 [18 Pages, 1.71MB]

RASCAL (Project MX-776), September 30, 1968 [76 Pages, 12.49MB]

RASCAL (MX-776B) [130 Pages, 51MB]

RASCAL: Air to Ground Guided Missile [94 Pages, 35.45MB]

RASCAL Weapon System (Project MX-776) [80 Pages, 11.65MB]

RASCAL Weekly Test Reports [220 Pages, 44.15MB]

System 112A

System 112A – Rascal Missile System, 1 May 1959 [96 Pages, 36MB]

System 112A – Flight Test Summary – 1 July 1958 [63 Pages, 13.3MB]

System 112A – Quarterly Progress Report, 31 March 1957 [80 Pages, 41MB]

System 112A – Quarterly Progress Report, 30 June 1957 [70 Pages, 10.5MB]

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The Navy Bumblebee program was created at the end of WW-II to develop a defense against the Japanese kamikaze threat. The program was to develop a jet propelled, guided anti-aircraft missile. The result was the Navy’s 3-T Missiles – Talos, Terrier and Tartar.

While initial efforts were concentrated on developing the Talos ram-jet engine, a solid rocket propelled test vehicle to develop missile steering designs was recognized as capable of providing a simpler interim weapon for smaller ships, resulting in the Terrier two stage missile and the later single stage Tartar with solid fuel dual thrust rocket motor.

The Talos was first tested at White Sands in 1951 while Terrier and Tartar testing was relocated from China Lake CA in the early 1960s.+

Declassified Documents

SemiAnnual Report of Bumblebee Project, July-December 1949 [54 Pages, 2.83MB] – The end of 1949 marks the completion of the first five years of the BUMBLEBEE program. It is gratifying to note that the objectives originally scheduled for this five-year period have come reasonably close to realization.

Survey of Bumblebee Activities, July 1952 [52 Pages, 3.25MB] – The general objective of the BUMBLEBEE project, initiated in 1945, has been the developmentof a radar-guided, ramjet-propelled, supersonic missile (Talos). Originally limited to antiaircraftapplication, BUMBLEBEE has been extended to include a long-range, ship-launched, guided bom.bardment missile (Triton) as well as a short-range, solid-rocket-propelled antiaircraft missile(Terrier). These missile objectives have been the outgrowth of a research and development programin basic fields of science related to a guided missile technology.

The post The Bumblebee Program first appeared on The Black Vault.

Project MX-800 is a nine month study and research program calling for “investigations in connection with the development of a supersonic air-to-air pilotless aircraft for use as a guided missile for the destruction of high performance hostile aircraft.”  The study and research are to provide recommendations for the continued development work required for the completion of suitable designs for all necessary components, and will include proposals for the additional engineering studies, development tests, and construction necessary for complete development of this pilot-less aircraft.

The missile is to have a tactical range of 6000 yards, a speed of the order of 1500 miles per hour, and is to be used against 750-miles per hour aircraft.

Document Archive

 Air to Air Supersonic Pilotless Aircraft Army Air Forces Project MX-800 Progress Report No. 4, March 13, 1947 [104 Pages, 4.8MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/aviation/ADC800676.pdf

The post Air to Air Supersonic Pilotless Aircraft, Army Air Forces Project MX-800, Progress Report No. 4, March 13, 1947 first appeared on The Black Vault.

Although this document has been released prior to my Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) request, there has been quite a bit more released (ie: no longer redacted).

I requested this in October of 2016, and received this reviewed copy on 30 May 2017.

According to the document:

Before and during World War II, the Germans had developed a variety of missile systems. At the end of the war, they stood alone in the numbers and complexity of these systems. Some were used during the war with varying degrees of effectiveness; others were evolving when the war ended. Many of these missile systems, and the scientists who had developed them, were acquired by the Soviets after the war, permitting the USSR to quickly establish its own missile program.

At first the Soviets attempted to keep the missile-related facilities intact on German soil, using German scientists to the maximum extent possible while Soviet counterparts were gaining familiarity in a new field. Later, the Germans, and most of the missile-related facilities, were sent to the USSR, where work continued under Soviet control.

The V-2, a German rocket used operationally late in the war, was the system most extensively studied and emulated by the Soviets. It was the first such missile tested in the USSR, inaugurating the opening in 1947 of the Soviet Union’s first missile test range at Kapustin Yar. Reflections of its design were seen years later in the evolving Soviet missile program. Other missiles, and missile-related systems and subsystems, also fell into Soviet hands after the war; they too provided the Soviets with technology and hardware that would serve them well in later years.

By 1953, most of the Germans had departed the USSR, and subsequent developments were by and large the result of indigenous Soviet programs planned, engineered, developed, and produced by Soviet personnel. In 1957, the USSR successfully tested its first ICBM, and by the early 1960s it had available a variety of ballistic missiles, from short-range ones to those capable of· covering intercontinental distances. By this time, three additional major test ranges were operational or evolving, and the Soviets had launched earth satellites into orbit. They had also successfully conducted planetary probes, and they had launched the first man into space.

By the early 1970s, further significant developments had occurred in the Soviet. missile effort. By this time, the Soviet Union had a major land-based ballistic missile force in being, capable of achieving ranges up to 7,000 nautical miles or more. Refinements in guidance and control systems saw missile accuracy improve steadily. Yields of nuclear warheads of deployed missiles varied up to 25 megatons. Multiple reentry vehicles, penetration aids, and multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles had evolved or were evolving by this time. Hardened, dispersed silos had come into widespread use, and mobile missile systems, mainly for tactical use, had been deployed in large numbers.

In the early 1970s, tests began of newer-generation missiles, further enhancing the Soviet Union’s capabilities in this area. Incorporating refinements in a number of significant areas, these newer missiles, coupled with the older ones, provide the Soviet Union with an effective weapons mix. Thus, from the early German assistance, from technology gleaned from Western sources, and through its own efforts, it can be seen that the USSR progressed steadily throughout -the years in the missile field, culminating in its advanced systems of today. Just as the Soviets were embarking on a new and unfamiliar field in these early years, so did the Sigint establishment find itself faced with a new and unfamiliar . problem. Organizations had to be built from nothing; personnel had to be trained; facilities and systems had to be developed; and a fragmented effort had to be streamlined and centralized.

To further complicate the problem, · the main inter.est of the U.S. Comint establishment after World War II concerned ·communications signals, in particular those transmitted in the HF band and below. Equipment, systems, and facilities were not available to adequately handle telemetry signals – from fast-moving missiles propagated in higher frequency bands.

Declassified Document

 The Soviet Land-Based Ballistic Missile Program, 1945-1972: An Historical Overview, 1973 [136 Pages, 15.8MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/sovietmissileprogram.pdf

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A guided missile is a self-propelled projectile used as a weapon. Missiles are typically propelled by rockets or jet engines. Missiles generally have one or more explosive warheads, although other weapon types may also be used.

Below are relevant documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Declassified Documents

 Archie to Sam. A Short Operational history of Ground-Based Air Defense [308 Pages, 5.46MB] – Dr. Kenneth Werrell’s history of ground-based air defense performs an important service both to scholarship and, more importantly, to the defense of our nation’s freedom. It is perhaps human nature that we tend over time to lose sight of the lessons of the past, especially when they do not conform to certain cherished preconceptions of ours. That such myopia can be dangerous, if not downright disastrous, Dr. Werrell’s study richly illustrates. Without sentimentalism, he chronicles a pattern of lessons learned and too quickly forgotten as the marvel of air power was reminded again and again of its limitations and vulnerability. In Korea and in Vietnam, the American people were stripped of their illusions of national and technical omnipotence. The unhappy outcome of those two conflicts was doubly lamentable because the lessons of World War II were—or should have been—fresh in our minds. In that world war, as Dr. Werrell shows, relatively cheap ground-based air defense did make a difference: at Ploesti, at Antwerp, and at the Rhine bridges.

Ballistic Missiles

Air University Quarterly Review, The Air Force Ballistic Missile, vol. IX, No 3, 1957 [72 Pages, 32mb]

Ballistic Missile Defense Glossary v3.0 [323 Pages]

Preliminary Design Approach. Air-to-Surface Missile Strategic Weapon System [51 Pages, 2.48 MB] – After years of research, I found a document written by my grandfather, R.E. Greenewald.  Forever will his legacy be preserved now on the internet!

Foreign Missile Intelligence

Missiles Against Missiles, by Tomasz Hypki – 24 October 2001 [43 Pages, 1.6MB] – Excerpt: As a result of the simulated nuclear missile attack conducted during the command staff exercises entitled Decisive Strike carried out in the early 1970’s in the USSR, there was destruction of 90% of the American armed forces, 70% of its industrial potential and loss of 80 – 90 million residents of the United States. This result exceeded the anticipation of Soviet leaders who had structured entire maps on the development of nuclear weapons. The rivalry with the United States which had started in this manner had reached the point where, by the early 1980’s, each side had at its disposal 10 thousand nuclear warheads mounted on delivery vehicles with strategic ranges capable of reaching enemy territory.

The Weapon of Victory [11 Pages, 2.1MB]

Guided Missiles

UNGUIDED ROCKET BALLISTICS METEOROLOGY CONFERENCE, 31 OCTOBER-2 NOVEMBER 1967  [640 Pages, 23.7MB] – This publication contains some of the papers to be presented at the Unguided Rocket Ballistics Meteorology Co, ference. Those not included here were not received by the Conference Chairman, E. J. Trawle, in time for publication. All papers are printed as received from the authors.

Missile Defense

 Integrated Missile Warning/Mission Defense Advanced Concept Demonstration, 06/14/2004 [239 Pages, 0.6MB] – This document is nearly entirely redacted – but they sent nearly every page whited out citing FOIA exemption (b)(3).

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