AIR-2 Genie

AIR-2 Genie
AIR-2A Genie nuclear air-to-air rocket on a MF-9 Transport Trailer at Hill Aerospace Museum
Type	Short-range air-to-air missile
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1958–85
Production history
Manufacturer	Douglas Aircraft Company
Produced	1957–62
Specifications
Weight	822 pounds (372.9 kg)
Length	9 feet 8 inches (2.95 m)
Diameter	17.5 in (444.5 mm)
Warhead	1.5-kT nuclear
Engine	Thiokol SR49
Wingspan	3 ft .4 in (0.9 m)
Propellant	Solid fuel
Operational range	6 miles (9.7 km)
Speed	Mach 3.3

The Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1 and also known as the blivet) was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead. It was deployed by the United States Air Force (USAF 1957–1985) and Canada (Royal Canadian Air Force 1965–68, Air Command 1968–84) during the Cold War. Production ended in 1962 after over 3000 were made, with some related training and test derivatives being produced later.

The interception of Soviet strategic bombers was a major military preoccupation of the late 1940s and 1950s. The revelation in 1947 that the Soviet Union had produced a reverse-engineered copy of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the Tupolev Tu-4 (NATO reporting name "Bull"), which could reach the continental United States in a one-way attack, followed by the Soviets developing their own atomic bomb in 1949, produced considerable anxiety.

The World War II-age fighter armament of machine guns and cannon were inadequate to stop attacks by massed formations of high-speed bombers. Firing large volleys of unguided rockets into bomber formations was not much better, and true air-to-air missiles were in their infancy. In 1954 Douglas Aircraft began a program to investigate the possibility of a nuclear-armed air-to-air weapon. To ensure simplicity and reliability, the weapon would be unguided, since the large blast radius made precise accuracy unnecessary.