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Country: USA
Type: ABM
Introduction: 1975 |
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The Spartan, designation LIM-49A, was a United States Army anti-ballistic missile (ABM). It was a three-stage, solid-fuel surface-to-air missile that carried a thermonuclear warhead to intercept incoming warheads at high altitude. The missile was launched from an underground silo and radio command guided. The Spartan missile was in operational service for only a few months, from October 1975 to early 1976. A combination of high costs and the SALT I treaties resulted in early deactivation.
The warhead mounted on the Spartan ABM was designed to destroy incoming nuclear weapons by neutron flux rather than by blast. The implications of this effect were a contributing cause to the phase-out of nuclear-warheads in anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile rockets. A high-altitude nuclear explosion, such as the Spartan ABM produced, created a strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that resulted in a temporary disabling of the ABM system as well as causing substantial damage to unhardened electronic devices.
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| General Information |
| Developed by |
USA |
| Deployed by |
USA |
| Development Year |
1965 |
| Deployment Year |
1975 |
| Retirement Year |
1976 |
| Number deployed |
30 |
| Contractor |
Western Electric, McDonnell Douglas |
| Dimensions and Performance |
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Length |
16.8m |
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Body Diameter |
1.07m |
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Wing/Fin span |
2.98m |
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Launch Weight |
13,100kg |
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Range |
740km |
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Speed |
Mach 4.0+ |
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Altitude |
560km |
| Components |
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Propulsion |
3-stage solid-fuel rocket motor |
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Engine |
(1st stage) Thiokol TX-500 solid rocket motor, (2nd stage) Thiokol TX-454 solid rocket motor, (3rd stage) Thiokol TX-239 solid rocket motor |
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Warhead |
nuclear warhead W-71(5MT) |
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Guidance |
ground-based radio command |
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