Tinker Celebrates 75 Years: Boeing AGM-86B/C/D ‘ALCM’ missile profile

Courtesy Photo | An AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile captured in-flight from a chase aircraft over the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, during a program test flight in this undated photo. Photo courtesy Tinker Air Force Base History Office.  

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, UNITED STATES

04.21.2017

Story by Greg L. Davis 

72nd Air Base Wing

The AGM-86B/C/D Air Launched Cruise Missile is an air breathing missile capable of sustain subsonic flight using both inertial, Litton terrain contour matching and Global Positioning System guidance. Three distinct versions of the missile consist of the B model with a W80–1 nuclear warhead, the C model with conventional 1,000 pound high explosive blast and fragmentation warhead. The final version is the AGM-86D conventional explosives, but with a penetrating warhead.

Tinker's role with the air launched cruise missile centers around the sustainment, repair and overhaul of the F107 turbofan engine along with continuing software upgrades. The F107 is a two-shaft engine weighing a mere 146 pounds yet capable of producing 600 pounds maximum thrust. This gives the missile a maximum speed of 500 mph and range in excess of 1,500 miles.

Tinkers OC–ALC became the ALCM program manager on 12 October 1974 with 3,680 F107 engines having been overhauled by 30 September 2000, the last year of reported numbers on file.

The missile gained notoriety during the opening days of operation Desert Storm in January 1991 as seven B-52s launched 35 missiles to attack targets inside Iraq from stand-off ranges. The missiles follow preprogrammed attack routes after being dropped from the wings of the B-52s. A major cable news network captured multiple missiles as they cruised toward and struck high-value targets with live-narration riveting the audience and sending the leadership of Iraq in to hiding.

The AGM-86 missile continues to be used by the US Air Force bomber fleet and can be carried internally by the B-52 using the common strategic rotary launcher to reduce parasitic drag and increase the range of the aircraft. The missile is also certified for employment with the B-1B Lancer and B-2A Spirit fleet of bombers.

The US Air Force accepted 1,715 missiles between 1979 and 1986.

• Date Taken: 04.21.2017
• Date Posted: 04.21.2017 15:40
• Story ID: 231173
• Location: OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, US