The AGM-76 Falcon was an air-to-surface

anti-radiation missile An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be ta ...

developed by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. Intended as a conversion using off-the-shelf parts, it did not go into operational service.

Overview

During 1966, the United States Air Force began development of a heavy anti-radiation missile for use against

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

radars in Vietnam. Using existing airframes from the cancelled

AIM-47 Falcon The Hughes AIM-47 Falcon, originally GAR-9, was a very long-range high-performance air-to-air missile that shared the basic design of the earlier AIM-4 Falcon. It was developed in 1958 along with the new Hughes AN/ASG-18 radar fire-control sys ...

heavy air-to-air missile project combined with the

seeker head Missile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missile's target accuracy is a critical factor for its effectiveness. Guidance systems improve missile accuracy by improving its P ...

of the

AGM-45 Shrike AGM-45 Shrike is an American anti-radiation missile designed to home in on hostile anti-aircraft radar. The Shrike was developed by the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in 1963 by mating a seeker head to the rocket body of an AIM-7 Sparrow. ...

anti-radiation missile, the AGM-76A was fitted with a warhead of the type used in the

Mark 81 bomb The Mark 81 is a general-purpose bomb (nicknamed "Firecracker"). It's the smallest of the General-purpose bomb#Modern American GP bombs: the Mark 80 series, Mark 80 series of low-drag (physics), drag general-purpose bombs. Development and deploy ...

. Test-firings of AGM-76As were conducted from

McDonnell F-4D Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowers ...

Republic F-105F Thunderchief The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Vietnam War. It ...

, and

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Grumman A-6B Intruder aircraft, however the missile was not put into production, the AGM-45 and

AGM-78 Standard ARM The AGM-78 Standard ARM or STARM was an anti-radiation missile developed by General Dynamics, United States. It was built on the airframe of the RIM-66 Standard surface-to-air missile, resulting in a very large weapon with considerable range, al ...

becoming the standard anti-radiation missiles used by the United States.

Operators

* : The

cancelled the AGM-76 prior to service entry.

References

{{US missiles Cold War air-to-surface missiles of the United States Anti-radiation missiles of the United States Abandoned military rocket and missile projects of the United States