In 1962, the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

issued a requirement for a long-range high-precision air-to-surface missile. The missile, named the AGM-53A Condor, was to use a television guidance system with a data link to the launching aircraft similar to the system of the then projected

AGM-62 Walleye The AGM-62 Walleye is a television-guided glide bomb which was produced by Martin Marietta and used by the United States Armed Forces from the 1960s-1990s. Most had a 250 lb (113 kg) high-explosive warhead; some had a nuclear warhea ...

Development history

Because of numerous problems in the development phase, the first flight of an XAGM-53A missile did not occur before March 1970. On 4 February 1971, in its first live warhead test, a Condor made a direct hit on the ex-US navy destroyer escort , while tests later that year demonstrated the ability to hit targets at a range of .Pretty 1976, p. 149. The AGM-53 program was cancelled in March 1976. Its long range and potentially high precision made the Condor a very powerful weapon, but it was much more expensive than contemporary tactical air-to-ground weapons. The secure data link contributed a significant portion to total missile cost, and it certainly didn't help that this link was still somewhat unreliable.

Description

The Condor was to be a long-range missile to be used for high-precision stand-off attacks. The missile was launched by the strike aircraft from a distance of up to to the general target area. When the AGM-53 approached the expected target position, the image of the TV camera in the missile's nose was transmitted back to the operator in the launching aircraft. The operator could switch between wide and narrow field-of-view images to find a suitable target. As soon as a target for the missile had been selected, the operator could either fly the missile manually until impact, or lock the Condor on the target and rely on the missile's capability to home on the final aiming point. The Condor's linear

shaped charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, init ...

warhead detonated on impact. A variant of the Condor was anticipated to carry the

W73 The W73 was a planned nuclear warhead for the AGM-53 Condor air to surface missile and designed by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (now Los Alamos National Laboratory). The W73 warhead was cancelled in 1970 in favor of a purely conventional warhe ...

nuclear warhead, a derivative of the B61 nuclear bomb. Details on the W73 are poorly documented, and it never entered production or service.

Operators

*: The AGM-53 was cancelled before entering service.

References

*Friedman, Norman (1983). ''US Naval Weapons''. Conway Maritime Press. *Gunston, Bill (1979). ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rockets and Missiles''. Salamander Books Ltd. *Pretty, R.T; Archer, D.H.R. (eds.) (1973). ''Jane's Weapon Systems 1972–73''. Jane's Information Group. * {{North American Aviation aircraft AGM-053 Abandoned military rocket and missile projects of the United States