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The Diamondback was a proposed nuclear-armed air-to-air missile studied by the United States Navy's Naval Ordnance Test Station during the 1950s. Intended as an enlarged, nuclear-armed version of the successful Sidewinder missile, Diamondback did not progress beyond the study stage.

Diamondback
Type	Air-to-air missile
Place of origin	United States
Service history
Used by	United States Navy
Production history
Designed	1956-1957
Manufacturer	Naval Ordnance Test Station
No. built	0
Specifications
Mass	850 pounds (390 kg)
Length	12.3 feet (3.76 m)
Diameter	12 inches (300 mm)
Warhead	Nuclear warhead
Blast yield	0.75 kilotons of TNT (3.1 TJ)
Engine	Dual-thrust rocket
Wingspan	40 inches (1,000 mm)
Propellant	Liquid fuel UDMH/RFNA
Operational range	15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km)
Flight ceiling	80,000 feet (24,000 m)
Maximum speed	Mach 3+
Guidance system	Infrared seeker/passive radar guidance

Development history

In 1956, studies began at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at China Lake, California involving an advanced development of the AAM-N-7 (later AIM-9) Sidewinder air-to-air missile, which was then entering service with the United States Navy. Originally known as "Super Sidewinder", the program soon gained the name "Diamondback", continuing China Lake's theme of naming heat-seeking missiles after pit vipers.[1][2]

Diamondback was intended to provide increased speed, range and accuracy over that achieved by Sidewinder.[3][4] The missile's design called for it to be armed with either a powerful continuous-rod warhead or a low-yield nuclear warhead,[5] the latter developed by China Lake's Special Weapons Division, and which would have a yield of less than 1 kiloton of TNT (4.2 TJ).[6]

The propulsion system was intended to be a liquid-fueled, dual-thrust rocket,[5] using hypergolic, storable propellants.[7] The rocket motor planned for use in the Diamondback missile was based on that developed by NOTS for the Liquid Propellant Aircraft Rocket (LAR) project.[8]

Although the design studies were promising, the Navy did not have a requirement for a missile of this sort. As a result, the Diamondback project was dropped; studies came to a halt around 1958,[1] while by the early 1960s the project was considered "inactive" and was allowed to fade into history.[3][5]

References

Notes

Bibliography

На других языках

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- [en] Diamondback (missile)

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[ru] Diamondback

Diamondback ([ˈdaɪəməndbæk] чит. «Да́ймэндбэк», с англ. «гремучник», войсковой индекс не присваивался) — американская управляемая ракета класса «воздух—воздух» малой дальности с ядерной боевой частью. Предназначалась для оснащения самолётов палубной авиации. Была разработана во второй половине 1950-х гг. Испытательной станцией вооружения флота Главного управления вооружения ВМС США в Чайна-Лейк, штат Калифорния, совместно с компанией General Electric в Ютике, штат Нью-Йорк, и корпорацией Philco в Филадельфии, штат Пенсильвания[1][2]. Предназначалась для замены на флоте УРВВ «Сайдуайндер», которую она должна была превзойти по дальности и точности вкупе с более мощной боевой частью[2]. Научно-исследовательские работы велись активно с 1955 по 1958 гг. Проект был свёрнут до начала стадии испытаний[3].

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