The White Sands Missile Range Museum’s Missile Park

RIM-8 Talos

Talos, one of the guided missiles in the Navy’s Bumblebee program, was named for a Greek demigod who protected the island of Crete. It was primarily a surface-to-air missile but could also be used effectively against ships and shore-bombardment targets. Design requirements called for a missile with long-range fleet protection and compatibility with large cruiser platforms. The Talos and its relatives, the Terrier and Tartar missiles, were part of the 3Ts that resulted from work under the Bumblebee program that began in 1945. The 3Ts represented the first incarnation of the Navy’s multi-layered air defense concept and the beginning of the classes of guided-missile cruisers and destroyers in the US fleet.

Of the 3Ts, only Talos employed a liquid fuel ramjet sustainer engine that required a booster to develop the necessary speed for the ramjet to function. Initially, Talos used beam-rider guidance, but soon added semi-active homing for all but its nuclear-equipped variants. Semi-active homing is achieved by use of interferometer antennas mounted on the cowl at the front of the missile. The initial range capability of Talos was 10 nautical miles, later increased to 130 nautical miles. Talos evolved into a versatile weapon with nuclear or conventional warhead capabilities, semi-active homing, anti-radiation protection, broad electronic counter-countermeasures and anti-ship capability.

Experimental RTV-N-6a3 Talos (referred to as the XPM) testing began at China Lake, California, but was soon moved to the White Sands Proving Ground at Launch Complex 35. The first Talos firing at WSPG was for XPM Round No. 7 in July 1951. The second and final XPM test was for Round No. 6 in August 1951.

In the 1950s, a tri-service effort led to the creation of the Talos Defense Unit (TDU) at WSPG. The land-based concept, headed by the Air Force, was to be centered on the nuclear-capable Talos W and fielded alongside the BOMARC system to provide air defenses for key installations and population centers across the US. However, changes in the military’s operational responsibilities and priorities saw the TDU transferred to the Army, which quickly shuttered the project in favor of its own Nike systems.

The first Talos firing at sea was in February 1959 from the USS Galveston, a guided-missile cruiser. Two sister ships and the nuclear-powered USS Long Beach also successfully fired Talos missiles at sea. Three more cruisers were converted to use Talos as their principal armament. Talos testing was supported until December 1972. The last seaborne Talos was fired by the USS Oklahoma City in May 1979. Late in its lifecycle, a program was developed to modify Talos missiles for use as a low-altitude supersonic target for the US Army’s SAM-D system and the Navy’s Aegis.