Boar

In the early 1950s, engineers at the the US Navy's Main Department of Arms in China Lake began developing a simple unguided missile with a nuclear warhead suitable for launch from carrier-based fighters and attack aircraft. At the heart of the concept was the desire to provide the ability to effectively hit fast-moving warships.

Ordinary free-fall tactical atomic bombs did not quite meet this requirement: in order not to be in the zone of destruction of such a bomb, the carrier aircraft had to drop it from a sufficiently high height. During the fall of a bomb, a ship or enemy squadron could have time to move to the side, thereby significantly weakening the effect of a nuclear strike.

A missile with a nuclear warhead made it possible to solve this problem - a carrier aircraft could launch it from a safe distance without exposing itself to the risk of being affected by the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion . In addition, the use of missile weapons allowed the carrier aircraft to remain outside the radius of the effective effective anti-aircraft artillery of the enemy.

The US Navy planned to use the new missile as part of the " throwing bombing " technique. The attacking aircraft was supposed to approach the target at a low altitude (staying below the radar horizon of effective detection by enemy radar reconnaissance means), then abruptly perform a half-loop and launch a rocket along a ballistic trajectory towards the enemy. Due to this maneuver, the carrier remained unnoticed by the enemy until the moment of the attack and practically did not leave the enemy time to take any defensive measures.

The new missile, designated as the Bombardment Aircraft Rocket , or the Bureau of Ordnance Aircraft Rocket, or officially as the 30.5-inch aircraft missile, had a very simple design. It was based on the usual tactical atomic bomb Mark-7 , on the tail of which a solid propellant rocket engine with a thrust of 67 kilonewtons was installed. The engine burn time was 3 seconds.

According to calculations, the missile launched from the side of the aircraft carrying out "throwing bombing", the rocket due to summing the kinetic energy of the carrier and the propulsion of its own engine, had to fly about 12 km along a ballistic trajectory. The TNT equivalent of its warhead was 20 kilotons , which made it possible to destroy or severely damage a warship in a radius of up to 1,500 meters from the point of detonation.

The missile had no control system. Stabilization in flight was provided by three tail stabilizers.

BOAR missiles arrived aboard aircraft carriers in 1956. Due to its relatively low weight (about 1000 kg), missiles could be used from practically any deck aircraft, including the piston Douglas A-1 Skyraider . Also, its carriers were McDonnell F2H Banshee and Grumman F9F Panther carrier-based fighter jets.

For its time, BOAR was a simple and reliable weapon. About 20 missiles were launched in tests from 1953 to 1956 without a single failure. Initially, this missile was considered only as a temporary solution, until the creation of a more advanced guided missile Hopi , but for several reasons, the “Hopi” was never adopted. In total, about 225 copies of BOAR were made.

The pilots, however, did not like the rocket too much. Throwing bombing was considered unnecessarily dangerous and unofficially called the "idiot loop". In connection with the advent of a more advanced guided missile AGM-12 "Bullpup", in 1963, the BOAR was withdrawn from service.

• http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/boar.html
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