AGM - 78 Standard ARM The AGM - 78 Standard ARM was an anti - radiation missile developed by General Dynamics , United States of America . Overview . Originally developed for the US Navy during the late 1960s , the AGM - 78 was created in large part because of the limitations of the AGM - 45 Shrike , which suffered from a small warhead , limited range and a poor guidance system . General Dynamics was asked to create an air - launched ARM by modifying the RIM - 66 SM - 1 surface - to - air missile . This use of an " off the shelf " design greatly reduced development costs , and trials of the new weapon begun in 1967 after only a year of development . The first operational missiles were issued in early 1968 . The AGM - 78 was nicknamed the " starm " , an abbreviation of Standard ARM . The first version of the missile , the A1 Mod 0 , was little more than an air - launched RIM - 66 with the Shrike ' s anti radar seeker head attached to the front . An Aerojet Mark 27 MOD 4 dual - thrust solid - rocket - powered the missile , which was fitted with a blast - fragmentation warhead . Although more capable , the AGM - 78 was much more expensive than the AGM - 45 and the Shrike continued in service for some time . The new missile was carried by the F - 105F / G and the A - 6B / E . Variants . An inert training version of the AGM - 78A was built as ATM - 78A . Of equal size , mass and shape , the missile lacked a seeker head , warhead , or propulsion systems and was essentially just a dead weight . An A2 model introduced a bomb damage assessment ( BDA ) capability and an SDU - 6 / B phosphorus target marker flare to facilitate targeting of the site for follow up attacks . In 1969 an improved model called the AGM - 78B was produced . This featured a broadband seeker which allowed the missile to be used against a much wider variety of targets without having to select the seeker before the mission . A simple memory circuit was also included , allowing the missile to attack a target once it locked on , even if the radar was shut down . Previous ARMs would veer off course and miss when they lost a target , and as a result flipping the radar on and off had become a standard tactic for missile batteries . Some early AGM - 78A1s were updated with the new memory circuit and seeker . These missiles were designated as the AGM - 78A4 . The AGM - 78B was the most important version of the missile , and was widely used by the Air Force ' s F - 4G Phantom II Wild Weasel aircraft . A training version of the AGM - 78B was created , and was known as the ATM - 78B . In the early 1970s the AGM - 78C was produced . A US Air Force project , the C model was primarily intended to be more reliable and cheaper to build . It had a SDU - 29 / B white phosphorus target marker . Some older missiles were upgraded to the AGM - 78C standard . As before , an ATM - 78C training missile was produced . Between 1973 and 1976 the AGM - 78D was produced , introducing a new motor . A follow up missile , the AGM - 78D2 , had an active optical fuze , still greater reliability , and a new blast - fragmentation warhead . The ATM - 78D training missile followed . The RGM - 66D shipborne anti - radiation missile used the basic AGM - 78 airframe along with features of the RIM - 66 and AIM - 97 Seekbat air - to - air missile . Including all versions , over 3 , 000 AGM - 78 missiles were built . Production stopped in the late 1970s , but the missile continued in service for almost a decade before the last examples were replaced by the AGM - 88 HARM in the late 1980s .