SM-62 Snark

Northrop SM-62 Snark
Type	Surface-to-surface cruise missile
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1959–61
Used by	United States Air Force
Production history
Manufacturer	Northrop Corporation
Produced	1958–61
Specifications
Weight	48,150 pounds (21,850 kilogram) without boosters; 60,000 pounds (27,200 kg) with boosters
Length	67 feet, two inches (20.5 meters)
Warhead	W39 thermonuclear warhead (explosive yield: 3.8 megatons)
Engine	one Pratt & Whitney J57 jet engine; and two Aerojet solid-propellant rocket boosters J57 turbojet: 10,500 pounds (46.7 kilonewtons) of thrust; booster rockets: 130,000 pounds (580 kilonewtons) of thrust
Wingspan	42 feet, three inches (12.9 meters)
Operational range	5,500 nautical miles (10,200 kilometers)
Flight ceiling	50,250 feet (15,300 meters)
Speed	565 nautical mile/hour (1,050 kilometer/hour)
Guidance system	astro-inertial guidance with CEP of about 8,000 feet (2.4 kilometers).
Launch platform	mobile launcher

The Northrop SM-62 Snark was an early-model intercontinental range ground-launched cruise missile that could carry a W39 thermonuclear warhead. The Snark was deployed by the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command from 1958 through 1961. It represented an important step in weapons technology during the Cold War. The Snark took its name from the author Lewis Carroll's character the "snark".

The Snark missile was developed to present a nuclear deterrent to the Soviet Union and other potential enemies at a time when Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were still in development. The Snark was the only surface-to-surface cruise missile with such a long range that was ever deployed by the U.S. Air Force. Following the deployment of ICBMs, the Snark was rendered obsolete, and it was removed from deployment in 1961.

Work on the project began in 1946. Initially there were two missiles designed—a subsonic design (the MX775A Snark) and a supersonic design (the MX775B Boojum).(From the same poem: "The snark was a boojum, you see.") Budget reductions threatened the project in its first year, but the intervention of Air Force General Carl Spaatz and the industrialist Jack Northrop saved the project. Despite this, its funding by Congress was low, and this program was dogged by changes in specifications. The earliest planned due date in 1953 passed with the design still in development, and the Strategic Air Command was gradually becoming less supportive of it. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered that top priority be assigned to ICBMs and their associated guided missile programs.