SM-64 Navaho

Navaho missile on the launch pad

The North American SM-64 Navaho was an experimental, supersonic speed and intercontinental cruise missile, built by North American Aviation. The program ran from 1950 to 1958, with a total of ten starts on the Launch Complex 9 (LC- 9) in the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ( CCAFS ), between 1956 and 1958. Launch Complex 10 ( LC-10 ) was also assigned to the Navahoprogramm been launched in 1956 and a Navaho from there. All started Navaho were G -26 Trials.

The Navaho consisted of two parts, a booster rocket with liquid fuel and the actual cruise missile, which carried the warhead and was powered by two ramjet engines. The booster accelerated the cruise missile to almost Mach 3, wherein the ramjet engines were fired and the launcher was blasted off. Successful launches were carried out in the direction of the Caribbean islands. The missile then turned around and landed on the skid strip of CCAFS.

The cruise missile was named after the Navajo Nation and adheres to the established tradition of North American Aviation to start projects with code names with the letters " NA".

The program was set finally after five failed attempts at starting of eleven. The funders switched to more promising projects such as the SM -62 Snark and ICBMs Atlas and Titan.

A similar, but much more ambitious project was the cruise missile Pluto, which was developed from 1956 to 1964 and in virtually unlimited range and with newly developed TERCOM navigation should carry up to 24 hydrogen bombs on enemy territory.

Arming

• Nuclear warhead