Greyback and Growler
The only launch of the Regulus II missile from the Greyback aircraft carrier, August 18, 1958. National Archives
In June 1953, the US Department of Defense signed an agreement with Chance Vought to develop a cruise missile that could carry a thermonuclear warhead over 1600 km at supersonic speed. With the beginning of the design of the future Regulus II rocket, the US Navy began to conduct conceptual studies of its underwater carriers.
The beginning of work on cruise missiles for the US Navy dates back to the first half of the 40s. The bloody battles for new islands in the Pacific prompted the US Navy to begin studying radio-controlled unmanned aircraft designed to destroy heavily defended targets on land. This work gained momentum in the second half of 1944, when the remains of German Fieseler Fi 103 flying bombs (more commonly known as V-1) were handed over to the Americans. By the end of the year, the German invention was copied and put into mass production under the designation JB-2. Initially, it was planned to build 1000 copies per month, which in the end were to be used against the Japanese islands. Due to the end of the war in the Far East, this never happened, and the delivered missiles were used in numerous tests and trials. These studies, codenamed Loon, involved, among other things, testing various guidance systems, or the possibility of using missiles from the decks of submarines.
With the advent of nuclear weapons, the US Navy saw the potential of combining the atomic bomb with proven strike agents. The use of a new type of warhead made it possible to abandon the constant guidance of a missile from an accompanying aircraft or ship, which is necessary to achieve satisfactory accuracy. To guide the missile to the target, a simpler guidance system based on a gyroscopic autopilot could be used, and the issue of hit accuracy was solved through the use of a nuclear warhead. The problem was the size and weight of the latter, which forced a program to create a more advanced cruise missile with longer range and a corresponding payload. In August 1947, the project received the designation SSM-N-8 and the name Regulus, and its implementation was entrusted to Chance Vought, which, on its own initiative, had been working in this direction since October 1943. the entire project.
Program Regulus
The work performed led to the creation of an aircraft-like structure with a round fuselage with a central air intake into the engine and a 40° wingspan. Plate plumage and a small rudder were used. Inside the fuselage there is space for a warhead with a maximum mass of 1400 kg (nuclear Mk5 or thermonuclear W27), behind which is the steering system and the proven Allison J33-A-18 jet engine with a thrust of 20,45 kN. The launch was provided by 2 Aerojet General rocket engines with a total thrust of 293 kN. Training rockets were equipped with a retractable landing gear, which made it possible to place them on the airfield and reuse them.
A radio command steering system was used, combined with a gyroscopic autopilot. A feature of the system was the possibility of taking control of the rocket by another ship equipped with the appropriate equipment. This made it possible to control the rocket throughout the flight. This has been repeatedly confirmed in subsequent years.
in practice, incl. during tests on November 19, 1957. The missile, fired from the deck of the heavy cruiser Helena (CA 75), having covered a distance of 112 nautical miles, was adopted by the Tusk submarine (SS 426), which was under control for the following 70 nautical miles when Twin Carbonero (AGSS) took control of 337) - this drive brought Regulus over the last 90 nautical miles to reach his goal. The missile covered a total of 272 nautical miles and hit the target at a distance of 137 meters.
