IM-99A / IM-99B | CIM-10A / CIM-10B
BOMARC Air Defense Missile System
The United States Air Force built BOMARC as a long-range, SAGE-controlled interceptor missile for the defense of North America. Explore the weapon, its launch facilities, its command network, and the surviving record of every United States site.
Four BOMARC missiles raised from their launcher shelters. A standard 28-launcher battery arranged the shelters in four rows of seven.
Explore the BOMARC Program
Start with the system overview or follow one part of the operational network in detail.
United States Operational Sites
Eight Air Defense Command batteries protected the eastern United States and Great Lakes approaches.
Test and Planned Sites
These installations document the transition from development and training to deployment.
Hurlburt Field / Santa Rosa Island, Florida
The principal Air Force BOMARC operational-suitability, training, evaluation, and later target-launch installation.
Read the complete historyCamp Adair, Oregon
A planned western BOMARC installation whose construction and cancellation preserve a different part of the basing story.
Read the complete historyPaine Field, Washington
A planned Puget Sound BOMARC site shaped by changing requirements, siting decisions, and program reductions.
Read the complete historyA Missile Built for the SAGE Era
BOMARC began in the early postwar search for an unmanned interceptor that could attack hostile bombers far from their targets. Boeing and the University of Michigan's Michigan Aeronautical Research Center combined their names in the designation BOMARC. The program evolved from the earlier ground-to-air pilotless aircraft work into a long-range interceptor integrated with the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment.
The liquid-fueled A model and solid-booster B model stood vertically inside individual shelters. When ordered to launch, a shelter roof opened, the missile rose into flight under rocket power, and ramjets sustained its high-speed cruise. SAGE supplied midcourse guidance before the missile's onboard radar guided the terminal attack.
Early plans envisioned thousands of missiles at dozens of sites. The deployed force was much smaller: eight operational sites in the United States and two in Canada. Even so, the launch facilities, Ground-Air Transmitter links, direction centers, test ranges, accident sites, and surviving structures form one of the most distinctive landscapes of Cold War air defense.
Continue to the full BOMARC program summary
