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Aircraft: GAM-77/AGM-28 Hound Dog

Hounddog

The GAM-77/AGM-28 Hound Dog was a United States Air Force (USAF) supersonic, turbojet-propelled, air-launched cruise missile. A B-52 bomber could carry a missile under each wing as well as its internal nuclear bomb load. The Hound Dog was a Mach 2.1 (1,611 mph or 2,593 kph) standoff weapon that weighed over 10,000 pounds with a 12 ft (3.6 m) wingspan. It was armed with a 1,700 pound (771 kg) nuclear weapon with a selectable yield between 70 kilotons and 1.45 megatons. After launch the missile’s flight profile could be at high altitude above 50,000 ft (15,240 m) or low level down to 300 ft (91 m). Its high altitude range was over 750 miles (1,207 km) but low altitude range was only 400 miles (644 m). Although the Hound Dog was not a stealth vehicle, its shape and selective placement of radar-absorbent material allowed the missile to approach its target almost undetected. The Hound Dog was operational from 1960 to 1975 when it was replaced by the Short Range Attack Missile (SRAM) and Air-Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM). As a cold-war weapon, no Hound Dog was ever launched against an enemy target. Although the naming of the AGM-77 was never confirmed, many sources speculate the name came from Elvis Presley’s hit song, “Hound Dog,” which he released in 1956.