1974 MINUTEMAN ICBM AIR LAUNCHED BALLISTIC MISSILE TEST PROGRAM 45154

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This film "Air Mobile Feasibility Demonstration" chronicles the development of an Air Launched Ballistic Missile system. The ALBM concept was viewed as a potential game changer for strategic deterrence, allowing missiles to be deployed to remote locations at a moments' notice. As shown in the film, starting in the early 1970s, the USAF tested air-launching a Minuteman 1b ICBM from a C-5A Galaxy transport aircraft. Starting around 11:30, the film shows the final test on 24 October 1974. On that day, seven weeks after the first test, the Space and Missile Systems Organization successfully conducted an Air Mobile Feasibility test where a C-5A Galaxy aircraft air-dropped the 86,000-pound missile from 20,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. The missile fell to 8,000 feet before its rocket engine fired. The 10-second engine burn carried the missile to 20,000 feet again before it dropped into the ocean. The test proved the feasibility of launching an intercontinental ballistic missile from the air. In the end however, operational deployment of ALBM was discarded due to engineering and security difficulties, though the capability was used as a negotiating point in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
An air-launched ballistic missile or ALBM is a ballistic missile launched from a bomber. An ALBM allows the launch aircraft to stand off at long distances from its target, keeping it well outside the range of defensive weapons like anti-aircraft missiles and interceptor aircraft. Once launched, the missile is essentially immune to interception. This combination of features allowed a strategic bomber to present a credible deterrent second-strike option in an era when improving anti-aircraft defences appeared to be rendering conventional bombers obsolete.
The ALBM concept was only seriously studied in the US, largely as a way to ensure the usefulness and survivability of their large bomber fleet. After testing several experimental designs as part of the WS-199 efforts, the USAF began development of the GAM-87 Skybolt missile with range on the order of 1,150 miles (1,850 km). The only other major force relying on strategic bombers was the Royal Air Force, who also selected the Skybolt to arm their V bomber fleet. The Soviet Union does not appear to have seriously studied the concept, moving their strategic force directly to ICBMs.
Skybolt ultimately failed several key tests, while the US Navy's UGM-27 Polaris offered the same advantages and more. Skybolt was cancelled, leading to the Skybolt crisis and an agreement to sell Polaris to the Royal Navy as part of the Nassau Agreement. The concept saw little active development until the 1970s when ICBM warheads began to become accurate enough to attack other ICBMs while they were still on the ground. The US carried out several experiments using existing missile designs dropped from cargo aircraft, but ultimately abandoned this line of research entirely. No further strategic ALBM development has been carried out, and this class of missile never saw active use.
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[@MikeColetta]

In 1974 I was at Hill AFB as a Security Policeman (Law Enforcement) I was with this aircraft when the missile was loaded for the final test, and guarded the aircraft and history making cargo afterward. I'm glad I found this video because we were not allowed to take any photos of the operation. Now I have a nice video history of what I was part of. Very nice!

[@invictus6620]

that's awesome. In landing gear repair shop 507 there is a huge painting of a C5 with the oldschool white paint. I wonder if it has anything to do with this

[@edpolk1262]

Did you shoot any birds that got too close? LOLOLOL!

[@unassistedsuicide2243]

Too bad you didn’t get to watch them get launched in anger

[@Transblucency]

I. Kind of love the announcers at the end of this. You've got the cheery, sassy one then the more mature Rod Sterling approach. In all seriousness, it really was an amazing engineering feat. Watching the missile stabilize and then separate so smoothly from its carriage was extraordinary.

[@slobama]

Sound like Harry Morgan.

[@RMB42]

The cheery one was fake as could be. We're supposed to think it was from the test and not dubbed in afterward even though the fake play-by-play corresponds perfectly to a film that's in slow motion. 😄

[@ShinVega]

Love the colors of these C-5s!! I never knew we even tested air drop ICBM launches, we kick ass at engineering & ingenuity! 87,000lbs!!! Never seen so many parachutes for one load!! (10” circumference double braided nylon rope - Holy Crap!!) Great video 👍🏻 Thank you Uploader!!!

[@edpolk1262]

LOL

[@michaelmartinez1345]

What an interesting video!!! My father worked on the MX program while he was an engineer at TRW... I remember artist concept paintings of this setup... It is very cool to see it actually perform like it did here...

[@KevinMeno2008]

C-5A 69-0014, now preserved at AMC Museum

[@southwestxnorthwest]

USAF General: “Johnson! We need to test our parachute delivery method for equipment, what have you got?” Johnson: “Sir, let’s test launching a minuteman nuclear missle by deploying from parachute”

[@johnhopkins6260]

Just gotta love the accompanying happy music...

[@nopenotme6369]

I just found my next Kerbal Space Program project!

[@Transblucency]

There was a good package extraction and the nuts fired explosively.

[@iitzfizz]

Shame about the lack of rigidity though.

[@RMB42]

Obligatory "That's what she said!"

[@Mainsail76]

Vin Scully on the play by play starting at 12:27.

[@killman369547]

As a wise man once said: If it's stupid but it works, then it isn't stupid.

[@sprocket9200]

Still have to have the counter on the screen, yeah, yeah I know, cuz someone could steal your footage. Whatever! You are the only one on KZbin to do this.

[@PeriscopeFilm]

Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes. In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous KZbin users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do. Love our channel and want to support what we do? You can help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.

[@theymusthatetesla3186]

...that guy's voice at the end was added on!!

[@gibsondrummer]

theymusthatetesla he was so enthusiastic about nuclear weapons , then the light and airy music to finish , Armageddon is so gay !

[@Rutherford_Inchworm_III]

All of these Air Force films are naked propaganda. They're fascinating and valuable as historical artifacts, of course, but they're just 100% financed by the Cold War-era nuclear Air Force and 110% designed to extol their godly virtue as the nuke-wielding saviors of Western Civilization. You should never expect more than a smidgen of truth from them.

[@rrhone]

That's an interesting mission.

[@Nighthawke70]

Just think if they went with an SLBM like the Polaris or Trident. You could stuff two or more into one C5 and have one hell of a package.

[@edpolk1262]

Dumba**

[@lukestrawwalker]

You should have seen the plans to launch missiles from either the back or slung underneath an SR-71 and B-58 bomber... You can find the studies online and I did a summary of them on Ye Olde Rocketry Forum and the Sagitta Cantina rocketry site in "Luke's Study" of the forum section of the website... OL J R :)

[@lukestrawwalker]

The bad thing about this was, it had the worst aspects of both a bomber and a missile-- highly vulnerable on the ground and in the air, and no recall once the missile is launched. Basically the same reasons that killed the Skybolt nuclear missiles to be carried by B-52's and the British Vulcan bombers... OL J R :)

[@EpicThe112]

Nice and if this were to have been operational it would have increased the range of the Minuteman ICBM by 10-15% if dropped like this one but if released when does C5 Galaxy was climbing to its Cruise level 20 to 25% range increase might occur to the intercontinental ballistic missile is launched this way

[@Leo.Wirabuana]

what an effort.

[@DieyoungDiefast]

Another crazy idea...... that worked. If it works, it ain't crazy. :)

[@Zoomer30]

DieyoungDiefast That's the SpaceX motto. Pretty sure it's on their letter head.

[@RonJohn63]

It didn't work all that well.

[@Ferr1963]

10:55 With a little practice, they would have managed to get it to land directly inside the silo, thus saving a few gallons of diesel fuel from transport trucks. It's a stupid idea, but who cares about that? It's the '70s.

[@j.mangum7652]

The concept was to prove that we could have difficult to track mobile ICBM launchers like the Soviets did with their IRBM trucks. Also both we and the Soviets also tinkered around with having train launched ICBM's again being difficult to track in a grand shell game.

[@justinroberts8622]

Hardly stupid when you think about how a random cargo plane flying anywhere in the world could suddenly drop one of these and hit a target before the defender had any time to figure out what went wrong. Best place to hide something is right under their nose.

[@chudthug]

@@j.mangum7652 Russians actually did the whole rail luanched thing

[@mikegreen4531]

C-5A 69-0014 dropped the live missile. Which C-5 dropped the dummy? I couldn't read the number but looks like it ends with a seven

[@Yogasefski]

90027

[@showaltermicro]

still have 20 of them in service

[@leutrovond]

"If we only had full burn, hello kwaj!"

[@richardbearden7889]

I wish there was an airborne tank Corp... dropping combat load Abraham M1A 1 tanks...that would be nice... never know when that would be needed...

[@edpolk1262]

They'd get blown out of the sky by mobile AA missile systems. Idiot

[@NK-qn6pq]

Pretty sure the Abrams is too heavy to airdrop.

[@andyharman3022]

@@NK-qn6pq Abrams is 70 tons. The ICBM in this video was only 43 tons. Probably take another 2 chutes and another 10" rope.

[@AltronT]

Fire in the sky

[@repentandknowjesus8674]

the C-5 uses the DIX electronic load.

[@TruckingToPlease]

When the C-5A became a B-5A

[@kenstr321]

Why would an ICBM need to be fired while in the air? Couldn't they just drop it like a normal bomb at that point?

[@grandadmiralthrawn8116]

It would have been dropped from either within the US or off the coast

[@kenstr321]

@@grandadmiralthrawn8116 I'm saying in it's terminal phase, they usually drop the fuel tank and engine to make a smaller radar return, since it's in it's ballistic phase anyway.

[@johnhopkins6260]

C-130 MOAB almost seems infantile... almost.

[@mikegreen4531]

The first looks like 69-0027 but not sure

[@johnhopkins6260]

Subsequent to the Russians celebrating American withdrawal from Vietnam... Air Force Cocktail lounge conversation: How much can a C-5 carry? How much does a Minuteman weigh? ...umm... You're nuts...

[@ГошаБулатов-м7д]

Evangelion moment

[@selimemini4503]

ME KETETA SHUM LARG SHKOJN TONA SIJAHEHIT 17000 KILOMETRA SIN VJEN AUSTRIJA SWISS

[@rja7420]

I still fail to understand the practical aspect of air-launching as opposed to simply letting an icbm do its job as intended launching on a ballistic trajectory.

[@PeriscopeFilm]

The idea was likely to create a new leg in the nuclear triad -- one where missiles could be based at airports around the world, re-located at a moment's notice, and launched at a moment's notice.

[@rja7420]

PeriscopeFilm Ahh, I see some logic in that. Thanks

[@sigadams5032]

At the time the US ICBM program was dependent on in ground silos at fixed locations. The Russians had developed mobile ICBM launchers. This was the US’s attempt to create a mobile launched ICBM, these aircraft would have launched them from within US airspace. The plan fizzled as ICBMs launched from submarines became practical.

[@EpicThe112]

@@sigadams5032 I agree but that would be a problem if the subs were to be detected then got dropped on by 90r Russian nuclear charge which is still in operation to this day

[@jwenting]

@@PeriscopeFilm got to wonder why they went with this idea though rather than maturing Skybolt...

[@MrSmith-cm2yo]

Oh my god did North Korea just launched on China....!!!

[@davidgrover5996]

Mr. Smith, There was a book with that concept as a central plot point. But in reality tracing nukes back to their manufacturers is pretty straight forward.

[@Hot80s]

all those tax dollars bye bye

[@edpolk1262]

Stupid idea. Mobile AA guided missile fodder

[@booklover6753]

Not at all. The idea is to fire the missile before reaching enemy air defenses.

[@RMB42]

Yikes. Speaking of stupid, here's another one who has no idea what an ICBM is or does. The reality was the opposite. The launching aircraft would have never come anywhere near AA. That was the idea. The missiles would have been launched well outside of Soviet airspace, likely over or near the US such as just off the coasts. The missiles would have then flown over the North Pole and their warheads would have reentered the atmosphere over their targets just like ground launched ICBMs. The idea was similar to SLBMs - to deny the Soviets fixed ICBM launching points that could be struck preemptively, thus complicating the preemptive strike problem tremendously, making it far less likely (suicidal) to be attempted. It's the basic for the M.A.D. concept.

[@RobertBardos]

this is truly an absurd video .