Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

FROM GUNS TO MISSILES
Despite knowledge of the SA-2 since 1957 and its potential
(similar to the Nike Ajax), the United States made only mixed
progress with countermeasures. Tight budgets in the late
1950s hampered these efforts. Airmen assigned high priority
to countermeasures against the SA-2 in budgets for fiscal
years 1964 and 1965, but this was too late. The American Airmen
had nothing effective to use when the need arose. Because
of a joint Air Force–Army exercise in 1964, using the Hawk
missile, some Airmen concluded that aircraft could not operate
in SAM-protected areas. (It should be noted that Hawk was a
more capable SAM than was the SA-2.)
Although it is easy and partially correct to blame tight funding,
it is also true that the Airmen underestimated the requirement
for countermeasures. Although the USAF equipped strategic
bombers with electronic warning and jamming devices in
the late 1950s, it did not similarly equip tactical fighters and
bombers. Initially, the US Navy did a better job. Whatever the
reason—money, obsession with nuclear weapons delivery,
electrical power requirements, trust in fighter maneuverability
or speed—the USAF’s tactical air forces were unprepared for
the style of combat they would face in Vietnam. 41
The United States developed two other families of missiles
that were considerably smaller and much more mobile. The
1946 Stilwell Board saw the need for lightweight, man-carried
equipment for US soldiers and concluded that the existing .50-
caliber machine gun was inadequate. It sought an antiaircraft
machine gun capable of engaging aircraft flying up to 1,000 mph
at ranges of 200 to 2,500 yards. Four years later, the Army requested
a family of weapons to counter aircraft flying up to 1,000
mph at altitudes from zero to 60,000 feet and at horizontal
ranges up to 27,000 yards. From these studies came the formal
requirement in early 1951 for a surface-to-air guided missile to
protect forward combat units from low-altitude aerial attack. 42
The United States began development of Hawk in 1952 (fig.
46). Progress was relatively rapid. The Army awarded
Raytheon a development contract in July 1954, began flighttesting
in June 1956, started production in 1957, and activated
the first missile unit in August 1960. 43 To better defend
against low-flying aircraft, in 1964, the Army began an upgraded
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