The AIM-26 Falcon was a larger, more powerful version of the

AIM-4 Falcon The Hughes AIM-4 Falcon was the first operational guided air-to-air missile of the United States Air Force. Development began in 1946; the weapon was first tested in 1949. The missile entered service with the USAF in 1956. Produced in both heat- ...

air-to-air missile An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft (including unmanned aircraft such as cruise missiles). AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid-fuel roc ...

built by Hughes. It is the only guided American air-to-air missile with a

nuclear warhead A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

to be produced; the unguided

AIR-2 Genie The Douglas Aircraft Company, Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1) was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt W25 (nuclear warhead), W25 nuclear warhead. It was deployed by the United States Air Force (USAF 1957–1985) and Cana ...

rocket was also nuclear-armed.

Development

Starting in 1956

Hughes Electronics Hughes Electronics Corporation was formed in 1985, when Hughes Aircraft was sold by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to General Motors for $5.2 billion. Surviving parts of Hughes Electronics are today known as DirecTV Group, while the automoti ...

began the development of an enlarged version of the GAR-1D Falcon that would carry a

. It was intended to provide a sure kill in attacks on

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

heavy

bomber aircraft A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is d ...

, at a time when guided missiles were not accurate enough to produce high-probability kills with small conventional warheads. The original development was for

semi-active radar homing Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive dete ...

and heat-seeking versions based on the conventional GAR-1/GAR-2 weapons, under the designations GAR-5 and GAR-6, respectively. The original program was cancelled. The program was revived in 1959, now under the name GAR-11. It entered service in 1961, carried by

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for air defense of the continental United States. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air De ...

F-102 Delta Dagger The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger is an interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Convair. A member of the Century Series, the F-102 was the first operational supersonic interceptor and delta-wing fighter op ...

interceptors. It used a radar

proximity fuze A Proximity Fuse (also VT fuse or "variable time fuze") is a fuse that detonates an explosive device automatically when it approaches within a certain distance of its target. Proximity fuses are designed for elusive military targets such as air ...

and

. The GAR-11 used a sub-kiloton (250 ton) yield

W54 The W54 (also known as the Mark 54 or B54) was a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the late 1950s. The weapon is the smallest nuclear weapon in both weight and yield to have entered US service. It was a compact implo ...

warhead shared with the "Davy Crockett" M388 recoilless rifle projectile, rather than the larger W25 warhead of the

. Out of concern for the problems inherent in using nuclear weapons over friendly territory, a conventional version, the GAR-11A, was developed, using a explosive warhead.

Conventional warhead

As part of a wider Army/Navy/Air Force renaming project, in 1963 the weapon was redesignated AIM-26. The nuclear version became the AIM-26A, the conventional model the AIM-26B. From 1970 to 1972 the nuclear warheads of the AIM-26A weapons were rebuilt for the nuclear version of the

AGM-62 Walleye The AGM-62 Walleye is a TV guidance, television-guided glide bomb which was produced by Martin Marietta and used by the United States Armed Forces from the 1960s-1990s. The Walleye I had a 825 lb (374 kg) Explosive material, high-expl ...

TV guided bomb. The AIM-26 saw little widespread use in American service, retiring in 1972. The conventional AIM-26B was exported to Switzerland as the HM-55, where it was used on Swiss Mirage IIIS fighters. The AIM-26B was produced under

license A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

(and modified) in Sweden as the Rb 27, arming

Saab Draken The Saab 35 Draken (; ''The Kite'', ambiguous with ''The Dragon'') is a Swedish fighter-interceptor developed and manufactured by Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (SAAB) between 1955 and 1974. Development of the Saab 35 Draken started in 1948 as ...

J-35F and 35J fighters. It was retired in 1998. When Finland bought Drakens, the license-manufactured Swedish Falcons were included.

Specifications (GAR-11/AIM-26A)

* Length: * Wingspan: * Diameter: * Weight: * Speed: Mach 2 * Range: * Guidance: semi-active radar homing * Warhead:

nuclear, explosive yield 250 t TNT equivalent

Surviving Examples

Below is an incomplete list of museums which have an AIM-26 in their collection: * Museum of Aviation,

Warner Robins, Georgia Warner Robins (WRB; typically ) is a city in Houston County, Georgia, Houston and Peach County, Georgia, Peach Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the state's Georgia (U.S. state)#Major cities, 11th-largest incorpo ...

(AIM-26 A) *

National Museum of Naval Aviation The National Naval Aviation Museum, formerly known as the National Museum of Naval Aviation and the Naval Aviation Museum, is a military and aerospace museum located at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Founded in 1962 and moved to its curr ...

Naval Air Station Pensacola Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United Sta ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

(AIM-26 A) * DVHAA Historical Aircraft Museum,

Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove or NASJRB Willow Grove was a Naval Air Station owned by the U.S. Navy and located in Horsham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States four miles (6 km) northwest of the cent ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

(AIM-26 A) * Suomen ilmavoimamuseo /

Finnish Air Force Museum The Finnish Air Force Museum (), formerly the Aviation Museum of Central Finland (), is an aviation museum located near Jyväskylä Airport in Tikkakoski, Jyväskylä, Finland. The museum exhibits the aviation history of Finland, from the early ...

, Finland (AIM-26 B / RB 27) * Robotmuseum /

Robot Museum A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may b ...

Arboga, Sweden (AIM-26 B / RB 27) * Västerås Flygmuseum /

Västerås Aviation Museum Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 more than th ...

Västerås, Sweden (AIM-26 B / RB 27)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aim-26 Falcon Nuclear anti-aircraft weapons AIM-026 Military equipment introduced in the 1960s Swedish Air Force

Development

Conventional warhead

Specifications (GAR-11/AIM-26A)

Surviving Examples

See also

References