Missile AGM-86 ALCM

The AGM-86 is an American subsonic air-launched cruise missile developed for the B-52G and B-52H. Its lineage begins with the ADM-20 Quail decoy of 1956, a small jet drone carrying jammers and radar reflectors to present false targets to Soviet defenses. As Quail's utility declined against improving Soviet air defenses, a replacement requirement was issued in January 1968 for the Subsonic Cruise Aircraft Decoy (SCAD), sized to fit the same rotary launcher as the AGM-69 SRAM and using a triangular fuselage cross-section to maximize launcher volume. The availability of small nuclear warheads led to the program being redesignated Subsonic Cruise Armed Decoy, and TERCOM guidance was added to correct inertial drift over long flight times. Development was approved in July 1970 under the designation ZAGM-86A. In June 1973 the decoy role was dropped entirely and the program became the Air Launched Cruise Missile. The first flight took place in March 1976, with the guidance system tested that September, and full-scale production was ordered in January 1977. A requirement for an Extended Range Version, combined with the cancellation of the B-1, ended the A-model. Under the Joint Cruise Missile Project the design adopted the AN/DPW-23 TERCOM set and Williams F107 turbofan of the Navy's sea-launched missile. The ERV flew in August 1979 and won a fly-off against the sea-launched design in March 1980.

All variants use the F107 turbofan and deploy folded wings, tail surfaces and engine inlet after launch. Launch is possible from high or low altitude. The AGM-86B navigates by TERCOM and carries a W80 thermonuclear warhead, a B61 derivative with selectable yields of 5 or 150 kilotons. The AGM-86C CALCM, first converted in June 1986, substitutes a blast/fragmentation warhead and replaces TERCOM with GPS coupled to the inertial navigation system. Block I CALCMs produced in 1996–1997 introduced a 1,360 kg blast-class payload and a multi-channel GPS receiver, subsequently retrofitted to earlier conversions. The AGM-86D carries a unitary penetrating warhead. A B-52H carries six missiles on each of two external pylons and eight internally on a rotary launcher.

Production of 1,715 missiles ran from fiscal year 1980 to October 1986. The AGM-86B reached operational status in December 1982 with the 416th Bombardment Wing at Griffiss AFB, New York, and was later fielded across the B-52G and B-52H fleet. Integration and flight testing were conducted with the B-1B but the missile was never operationally deployed on that aircraft. Between 1983 and 1993, 23 missiles were tested over northern Canada under the Canada-U.S. Test and Evaluation Program to simulate northern Soviet terrain and climate. The CALCM entered combat in January 1991 when seven B-52Gs from Barksdale AFB launched 35 missiles against Iraqi targets on sorties exceeding 14,000 miles and 35 hours. Thirteen were fired during Operation Desert Strike in September 1996, followed by use in Operation Desert Fox in 1998, Operation Allied Force in 1999, and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the latter marking the combat debut of the AGM-86D. The CALCM was retired on 20 November 2019.