Weapon system

Legend for Numeric Designations
CL: Lockheed
D: Douglas
NA: North American[1]
WS (Weapon System)

Weapon System is a United States military term that designated, along with a weapon system number (e.g., WS-110), military experimental (MX) weapons prior to official naming (e.g., under a military aircraft designation system. Preceded by the first Skunk Works program (MX-813 for the Convair XF-92 in 1946), the earliest "WS" designation was the 1954 WS-117L. Circa February 1950, an Air Research and Development Command "study prepared by Maj Gen Gordon P. Saville ... recommended that a 'systems approach' to new weapons be adopted [whereby] development of a weapon "system" required development of support equipment as well as the actual hardware itself."

The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger in November 1949 was decided by the USAF to be built around a fire-control system--"the real beginning of the weapon system approach [and the] aircraft would be integrated into the weapon system "as a whole from the beginning, so the characteristics of each component were compatible with the others.".

US weapon programs often were initiated by numbered government specifications such as an Advanced Development Objective (e.g., ADO-40) or a General Operational Requirement (e.g., GOR.80), although some programs were initially identified by contractor numbers (e.g., CL-282).

^1 When a government program number is not available, a contractor number (if available) is used in the table, e.g., Lockheed CL-282 for the U-2.

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