The Hopi Missile

Hopi was an air-to-surface missile developed by the United States Navy’s Naval Ordnance Test Station. Intended to provide a medium-range nuclear capability for carrier aircraft, the missile reached the flight test stage during 1958, but the project was cancelled following testing and no production was undertaken.

Developed by the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at China Lake, California during the mid-to-late 1950s, the Hopi missile was an improved development of the earlier BOAR (Bombardment Aircraft Rocket). BOAR had been developed at China Lake as an unguided, nuclear-armed rocket for use by carrier-based aircraft, seeing limited service in the fleet between 1957 and 1963.

In its essentials simply an enlarged version of BOAR, which it was intended to replace in service, Hopi was designed as a medium-range weapon capable of being carried by a wide variety of carrier-based fighter and attack aircraft. The rocket-powered missile was capable of being fitted with a W50 nuclear warhead capable of producing a yield between 60 and 400 kilotons; however, no details of the planned guidance system for the missile, or if there even was intended to be guidance at all, have survived.  (Source: Wikipedia)

Continue scrolling for more...

Declassified Documents

 STATIC STABILITY AND DRAG OF THE HOPI WEAPON [77 Pages, 2.41MB]

Follow The Black Vault on Social Media:

This post was published on March 4, 2015 3:20 am

John Greenewald

Recent Posts

AARO Releases Final Report on “Eglin UAP” Incident

Today, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) of the U.S. Department of Defense provided their…

April 24, 2024

AATIP and the Pentagon: The Struggle Over UFO Program Records

Since October 2017, The Black Vault has investigated the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP),…

April 23, 2024

FOIA Documents Reveal AARO’s Authorized and Repeated Attempts to Engage with David Grusch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GNITLBj0hM The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), tasked to investigate Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), made…

April 18, 2024

DoD Releases “KONA BLUE” Documents

The following was the description by the DoD about KONA BLUE. It is reproduced here,…

April 16, 2024

Newly Released 1963 Report Sheds Light on Nuclear Era Urban Defense Strategies

After nearly a decade of waiting, The Black Vault has successfully acquired a document through…

April 12, 2024

National Guard Bureau Transition Book, Date Unknown

These records were provided by the family of anthologist and transparency activist Russ Kick, from his…

April 9, 2024