CIM - 10 Bomarc The Boeing CIM - 10 Bomarc ( IM - 99 Weapon System prior to September 1962 ) was a supersonic interceptor for Cold War air defense of North America which , in addition to being the first long - range anti - aircraft missile ( cf . proposed WIZARD predecessor ) , was the only SAM deployed by the United States Air Force . Stored horizontally in a launcher shelter with movable roof , the aircraft was erected to fire vertically using rocket boosters and then was ramjet - powered during midcourse command guidance to a dive point . During the " Homing Dive " , the missile ' s onboard AN / DPN - 34 radar allowed the BOMARC to guide itself to the target ( e . g . , enemy bomber or formation ) and a radar proximity fuze detonated the warhead ( conventional or 10 kiloton nuclear W - 40 ) . After the May 17 , 1957 , $ 7 million initial contract for operational aircraft ; the " Interceptor Missile " was deployed at launch areas in Canada and the United States ( e . g . , the 1960 Fort Dix IM - 99 accident contaminated a launch area . ) Boeing indicated : " Differences in the Langley Base layout are due to planning for accommodation of the advanced missile system [ ( IM - 99B ) ground equipment with equipment for ] the IM - 99A system " . Actual launches were from Florida test range sites ( AFMTC & Eglin ' s Santa Rosa Island ) and controlled by AN / GPA - 35 and / or AN / FSQ - 7 computers , e . g . , the Montgomery SAGE Center commanded 3 BOMARCs simultaneously in - flight during a May 1960 test . BOMARC launches as target drones began at Vandenberg Air Force Base on 25 August 1966 ( the 1st Vandenberg BOMARC launch was 14 October 1964 ) . Design and development . In 1946 , Boeing started to study surface - to - air guided missiles under the United States Army Air Forces project MX - 606 . By 1950 , Boeing had launched more than 100 test rockets in various configurations , all under the designator XSAM - A - 1 GAPA ( Ground - to - Air Pilotless Aircraft ) . Because these tests were very promising , Boeing received a USAF contract in 1949 to develop a pilotless interceptor ( a term then used by the USAF for air - defense guided missiles ) under project MX - 1599 . The MX - 1599 missile was to be a ramjet - powered , nuclear - armed long - range surface - to - air missile to defend the Continental United States from high - flying bombers . The Michigan Aerospace Research Center ( MARC ) was added to the project soon afterward , and this gave the new missile its name Bomarc ( for Boeing and MARC ) . In 1951 , the USAF decided to emphasize its point of view that missiles were nothing else than pilotless aircraft by assigning aircraft designators to its missile projects , and anti - aircraft missiles received F - for - Fighter designations . The Bomarc became the F - 99 . Test flights of XF - 99 test vehicles began in September 1952 and continued through early 1955 . The XF - 99 tested only the liquid - fueled booster rocket , which would accelerate the missile to ramjet ignition speed . In February 1955 , tests of the XF - 99A propulsion test vehicles began . These included live ramjets , but still had no guidance system or warhead . The designation YF - 99A had been reserved for the operational test vehicles . In August 1955 , the USAF discontinued the use of aircraft - like type designators for missiles , and the XF - 99A and YF - 99A became XIM - 99A and YIM - 99A , respectively . Originally the USAF had allocated the designation IM - 69 , but this was changed ( possibly at Boeing ' s request to keep number 99 ) to IM - 99 in October 1955 . In October 1957 , the first YIM - 99A production - representative prototype flew with full guidance , and succeeded to pass the target within destructive range . In late 1957 , Boeing received the production contract for the IM - 99A Bomarc A interceptor missile , and in September 1959 , the first IM - 99A squadron became operational . The IM - 99A had an operational radius of and was designed to fly at Mach 2 . 5 – 2 . 8 at a cruising altitude of . It was long and weighed . Its armament was either a conventional warhead or a W40 nuclear warhead ( 7 – 10 kiloton yield ) . A liquid fuelled rocket engine boosted the Bomarc to Mach 2 , when its Marquardt RJ43 - MA - 3 ramjet engines , fueled by 80 - octane gasoline , would take over for the remainder of the flight . The operational IM - 99A missiles were based horizontally in semi - hardened shelters ( " coffins " ) . After the launch order , the shelter ' s roof would slide open , and the missile raised to the vertical . After the missile was supplied with fuel for the booster rocket , it would be launched by the Aerojet General LR59 - AJ - 13 booster . After sufficient speed was reached , the Marquardt RJ43 - MA - 3 ramjets would ignite and propel the missile to its cruise speed and altitude of Mach 2 . 8 at . When the Bomarc was within of the target , its own Westinghouse AN / DPN - 34 radar guided the missile to the interception point . The maximum range of the IM - 99A was , and it was fitted with either a conventional high - explosive or a 10 kt W - 40 nuclear fission warhead . The Bomarc relied on the Semi Automatic Ground Environment ( SAGE ) , an automated control system used by NORAD for detecting , tracking and intercepting enemy bomber aircraft . SAGE allowed for remote launching of the Bomarc missiles , which were housed in a constant combat - ready basis in individual launch shelters in remote areas . At the height of the program , there were 14 Bomarc sites located in the United States and two in Canada . The liquid - fuel booster of the Bomarc A was no optimal solution . It took two minutes to fuel before launch , which can be a long time in high - speed intercepts , and its hypergolic fuels ( hydrazine and nitric acid ) were very dangerous to handle , leading to several serious accidents . As soon as high - thrust solid - fuel rockets became a reality in the mid - 1950s , the USAF began to develop a new solid - fueled Bomarc variant , the IM - 99B Bomarc B . It used a Thiokol XM51 booster , and also had improved Marquardt RJ43 - MA - 7 ( and finally the RJ43 - MA - 11 ) ramjets . The first IM - 99B was launched in May 1959 , but problems with the new propulsion system delayed the first fully successful flight until July 1960 , when a supersonic KD2U - 1 / MQM - 15A Regulus II drone was intercepted . Because the new booster took up less space in the missile , more ramjet fuel could be carried , increasing the range to . The terminal homing system was also improved , using the world ' s first pulse doppler search radar , the Westinghouse AN / DPN - 53 . All Bomarc Bs were equipped with the W - 40 nuclear warhead . In June 1961 , the first IM - 99B squadron became operational , and Bomarc B quickly replaced most Bomarc A missiles . Boeing built 570 Bomarc missiles between 1957 and 1964 , 269 CIM - 10A , 301 CIM - 10B . In September 1958 Air Research & Development Command decided to transfer the Bomarc program from its testing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to a new facility on Santa Rosa Island , immediately south of Eglin AFB Hurlburt Field on the Gulf of Mexico . To operate the facility and to provide training and operational evaluation in the missile program , Air Defense Command established the 4751st Air Defense Wing ( Missile ) ( 4751st ADW ) on 15 January 1958 . The first launch from Santa Rosa took place on 15 January 1959 . Operational history . The first USAF operational Bomarc squadron was the 46th Air Defense Missile Squadron ( ADMS ) , organized on 1 January 1959 and activated on 25 March . The 46th ADMS was assigned to the New York Air Defense Sector at McGuire AFB , New Jersey . The training program , under the 4751st ADW used technicians acting as instructors and was established for a four - month duration . Training included missile maintenance ; SAGE operations and launch procedures , including the launch of an unarmed missile at Eglin . In September 1959 the squadron assembled at their permanent station , the Bomarc site near McGuire AFB , and trained for operational readiness . The first Bomarc - A went operational at McGuire on 19 September 1959 with Kincheloe AFB getting the first operational IM - 99Bs . While several of the squadrons replicated earlier fighter interceptor unit numbers , they were all new organizations with no previous historical counterpart . ADC ' s initial plans called for some 52 Bomarc sites around the United States with 120 missiles each but as defense budgets decreased during the 1950s the number of sites dropped substantially . Ongoing development and reliability problems didn ' t help ; nor did Congressional debate over the missile ' s usefulness and necessity . In June 1959 , the Air Force authorized 16 Bomarc sites with 56 missiles each ; the initial five would get the IM - 99A with the remainder getting the IM - 99B . However , in March 1960 , HQ USAF cut deployment to eight sites in the US and two in Canada . Within a year of becoming operational , a Bomarc - A with a nuclear warhead caught fire at McGuire AFB on 7 June 1960 following the explosive rupture of its onboard helium tank . While the missile ' s explosives didn ' t detonate , the heat melted the warhead , releasing plutonium which the fire crews then spread around . The Air Force and the Atomic Energy Commission cleaned up the site and covered it with concrete ; fortunately , this was the only major incident involving the weapons system . The site remained in operation for several years following the fire , but after its closure in 1972 , the accident resulted in that area remaining off limits to the present day , primarily due to low levels of plutonium contamination . In 2002 , the concrete at the site was removed and transported to Lakehurst Naval Air Station for railheading to a site for proper disposal . In 1962 , the U . S . Air Force started using modified A - models as drones ; following the October 1962 tri - service redesignation of aircraft and weapons systems they became CQM - 10As . Otherwise the air defense missile squadrons maintained alert while making regular trips to Santa Rosa Island for training and firing practice . After the inactivation of the 4751st ADW ( M ) on 1 July 1962 and transfer of Hurlburt to Tactical Air Command for air commando operations the 4751st Air Defense Squadron ( Missile ) remained at Hurlburt and Santa Rosa Island for training purposes . In 1964 , the liquid - fueled Bomarc - A sites and squadrons began to be inactivated . The sites at Dow and Suffolk County closed first . The remainder soldiered on for several more years while the government started dismantling the air defense missile network . Niagara Falls was the first BOMARC B installation to close , in December 1969 ; the others remained on alert through 1972 . In April 1972 , the last Bomarc B in USAF service was retired at McGuire and the 46th ADMS inactivated . The Bomarc , designed to intercept relatively slow manned bombers , had become a useless asset in the era of the intercontinental ballistic missile . The remaining Bomarc missiles were used by all armed services as high - speed target drones for tests of other air - defense missiles . The Bomarc A and Bomarc B targets were designated as CQM - 10A and CQM - 10B , respectively . Notably , due to the accident the McGuire complex has never been sold or converted to other uses and remains in Air Force ownership , making it the most intact site of the eight in the United States . It has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Sites . Although a number of IM - 99 / CIM - 10 Bomarcs have been placed on public display , concerns about the possible environmental hazards of the thoriated magnesium structure of the airframe have resulted in several being removed from public view . Russ Sneddon , director of the Air Force Armament Museum , Eglin AFB , Florida provided information about missing CIM - 10 exhibit airframe serial 59 - 2016 , one of the museum ' s original artifacts from its founding in 1975 and donated by the 4751st Air Defense Squadron at Hurlburt Field , Eglin Auxiliary Field 9 , Eglin AFB . As of December 2006 , the suspect missile was stored in a secure compound behind the Armaments Museum . In December 2010 , the airframe was still on premises , but partially dismantled . Canada and the Bomarc . The Bomarc Missile Program was highly controversial in Canada . The Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker initially agreed to deploy the missiles , and shortly thereafter controversially scrapped the Avro Arrow , a supersonic manned interceptor aircraft , arguing that the missile program made the Arrow unnecessary . Initially , it was unclear whether the missiles would be equipped with nuclear warheads . By 1960 it became known that the missiles were to have a nuclear payload , and a debate ensued about whether Canada should accept nuclear weapons . Ultimately , the Diefenbaker government decided that the Bomarcs should not be equipped with nuclear warheads . The dispute split the Diefenbaker Cabinet , and led to the collapse of the government in 1963 . The Official Opposition and Liberal Party leader Lester " Mike " Pearson originally was against nuclear missiles , but reversed his personal position and argued in favor of accepting nuclear warheads . He won the 1963 election , largely on the basis of this issue , and his new Liberal government proceeded to accept nuclear - armed Bomarcs , with the first being deployed on 31 December 1963 . When the nuclear warheads were deployed , Pearson ' s wife , Maryon , resigned her honorary membership in the anti - nuclear weapons group , Voice of Women . Canadian operations . Canadian operational deployment of the Bomarc involved the formation of two specialized Surface / Air Missile squadrons . The first to begin operations was No . 446 SAM Squadron at RCAF Station North Bay , Ontario which was the command and control centre for both squadrons . With construction of the compound and related facilities completed in 1961 , the squadron received its Bomarcs in 1961 , without nuclear warheads . The squadron became fully operational from 31 December 1963 , when the nuclear warheads arrived , until disbanding on 31 March 1972 . All the warheads were stored separately and under control of Detachment 1 of the USAF 425th Munitions Maintenance Squadron . During operational service , the Bomarcs were maintained on stand - by , on a 24 - hour basis , but were never fired , although the squadron test - fired the missiles at Eglin AFB , Florida on annual winter retreats . No . 447 SAM Squadron operating out of RCAF Station La Macaza , Quebec was activated on 15 September 1962 although warheads were not delivered until late 1963 . The squadron followed the same operational procedures as No . 446 , its sister squadron . With the passage of time the operational capability of the 1950s - era Bomarc system no longer met modern requirements ; the Department of National Defence deemed that the Bomarc missile defence was no longer a viable system , and ordered both squadrons to be stood down in 1972 . The bunkers and ancillary facilities remain at both former sites . Operators . Locations under construction but not activated . Each site was programmed for 28 IM - 99B missiles : Surviving missiles . Below is a list of museums or sites which have a Bomarc missile on display :