Weapon System was a United States Armed Forces military designation scheme for experimental weapons[2] (e.g., WS-220) before they received an official name — e.g., under a military aircraft designation system. The new designator reflected the increasing complexity of weapons that required separate development of auxiliary systems or components.
Legend for Numeric Designations
CL: Lockheed Corporation
D: Douglas Aircraft Company
NA: North American Aviation[1]
WS (Weapon System)
In November 1949, the Air Force decided to build the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger around a fire-control system.[3] This was "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".[4]
Around 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."[5]
The first WS designation was WS-100A.[6]
US weapon programs were often begun as 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).[a]
List of Weapon Systems
edit| Number | Project |
|---|---|
| WS-104A[1] | SM-64 Navaho |
| WS-107A | SM-65 Atlas |
| WS-110 | North American XB-70 Valkyrie |
| WS-117L (GOR.80)[7] | Advanced Reconnaissance System (originally Project 1115);[8] recoverable capsule - Pied Piper/Sentry/SAMOS; television transmission - unfeasible;[9] Subsystem G: MiDAS |
| WS-119B (USAF 7795)[10] | Bold Orion ASAT |
| WS-119L | Project Moby Dick (originally Project Genetrix)[11] |
| WS-120A | BGM-75 AICBM |
| WS-124A | WS-124A Flying Cloud Project[12] |
| WS-125 | (B-72) |
| WS-133A | AN/DRC-8 Emergency Rocket Communications System (Program 494L) LGM-30 Minuteman |
| WS-199 | Anti-satellite weapon |
| WS-199B | Bold Orion |
| WS-199C | High Virgo |
| WS-199D | Alpha Draco |
| WS-201A | 1954 interceptor |
| WS-224A | Phase I: BMEWS, Phase II: Wizard missile system[13] |
| WS-306A | Republic F-105 Thunderchief (misidentified as WS-3061[14]) |
| WS315A | PGM-17 Thor missile[15] |
| WS-324A[16] | General Dynamics F-111 |
Notes
edit- ^ 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.
References
edit- ^ a b "North American SM-64 Navaho". www.designation-systems.net.
- ^ "MX - Military and Government". www.acronymfinder.com.
- ^ Donald 2003, pp. 68–69
- ^ Grant Historical Study No. 126 p. 53
- ^ Daso 1997, p. 166.
- ^ Parsch, Andreas. "Designations Of U.S. Air Force Projects". Retrieved 2020-01-18.
- ^ Burroughs 1998, p. 80–87.
- ^ Stares 1985, p. 30.
- ^ Burroughs 1998, p. 87.
- ^ Burroughs 1998, p. 139.
- ^ Stares 1985, p. 31–32.
- ^ Parsch, Andreas (21 March 2006). "WS-124A Flying Cloud". Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 4: Undesignated Vehicles. Designation-Systems. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- ^ NORAD Historical Summary 1958 January–June, p. 106
- ^ "Research Report - Index to Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-16. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
- ^ "Correspondence: Weapon System". Flight. 6 February 1959. Retrieved 2011-09-13 – via Flightglobal Archive.
- ^ "F-111 Aadvark". Archived from the original on 2012-03-03. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
- Burroughs, William E. (1988) [1986]. Deep Black (paperback ed.). New York: Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 0-425-10879-1.
- Daso, Dik (Major, USAF) (September 1997). Architects of American Air Supremacy: General Hap Arnold and Dr Theodore von Kármán. Air University Press. pp. 76, 166.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Stares, Paul B. (1985), The Militarization of Space, Ithaca: Cornell University Press