Tinker Celebrates 75 Years: Boeing AGM-28 ‘Hound Dog’ missile profile

Courtesy Photo | The AGM-28 “Hound Dog” missile was designed exclusively for carriage under the wings of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber. Two Hound Dogs can be seen on the special pylons which are closest to the fuselage and installed at Tinker Air Force Base. (Courtesy photo/Tinker Air Force Base History Office)  

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, UNITED STATES

05.12.2017

Story by Greg L. Davis 

72nd Air Base Wing

The AGM-28 Hound Dog Missile was a massive air-breathing missile designed exclusively for carriage under the wings of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber. Powered by a single Pratt & Whitney J52 turbojet the missiles were carried on specially built pylons with one missile under each wing.

Originally designated the GAM-77 for Ground Attack Missile, the Hound Dog is reportedly named after the popular Elvis Presley song of the same name. The design was a response by North American to the U.S. Air Force’s request for proposals in 1956 for an air-to-surface missile to give the B-52 extended stand-off capability as the Cold War intensified. The missile proposed by North American had a short developmental life with the first aerial launch from a B-52 in April 1959 and delivery of the first production example to the Strategic Air Command Commander, Gen. Thomas S. Power, on Dec. 21, 1959.

Tinker's role with the Hound Dog missile centered on the design, installation and maintenance of the special pylons which attached the missile to the aircraft. The pylons were semi-permanent fixtures and were installed in two work surges at Tinker beginning on Feb. 14, 1960 when, “maintenance personnel begin modifying B-52 bombers to transport and launch GAM-77 Hound Dog missiles,” according to Tinker’s history files. A second work load entered the maintenance complex on Aug. 20, 1961. Unlike most weapons pylons which simply hold the weapon in place, these robust pylons allowed the missiles’ engine to be started and fueled from the aircrafts’ internal fuel supply and gave the aircraft augmented take-off and in-flight thrust, if so desired. It is safely presumed part of the workload for pylon installation involved significant modifications to the fuel system in the B-52s wings.

The missile was operational with 29 B-52 squadron’s by August 1963, but was never used in combat. It instead served as a potent deterrent weapon based on its W28 4 megaton nuclear warhead and 700 mile range which would keep the B-52 well away from the final target. Operationally, the missile would be launched at approximately 45,000 ft., climb to a higher altitude approaching 60,000 ft and then dive to impact the target from above. The missile was redesignated AGM-28 for Air to Ground Missile when the military sought to standardize weapon and aircraft designations under a common naming convention.
The AGM-28 Hound Dog was 42 ft. 6 in. long, had a 12 ft. 2 in. wingspan, was 9 ft. 4 in. high and weighed 10,147 pounds in operational configuration. This makes it the largest American air-to-surface missile ever built.

The US Air Force accepted almost 700 missiles during the programs life. The AGM-28 Hound Dog missile was finally phased-out in 1978.

Manufacturer: North American
Missile type: AGM-28
Nickname Hound Dog
Power plant: single Pratt & Whitney J52 engine creating 7,500 pounds of thrust
In-service dates: 1959-1978
Number produced: Approx. 700
Tinker connection: management, maintenance and repair

• Date Taken: 05.12.2017
• Date Posted: 12.06.2017 10:39
• Story ID: 257646
• Location: OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, US