Editing Tactical Air Command (section)

=== Tactical missiles ===
[[Image:Tm-61-701st-hahn.jpg|thumb|left|Martin TM-61C "Matador" cruise missile of the 585th Tactical Missile Group, 38th Tactical Missile Wing based at [[Bitburg Air Base]], West Germany, 1958.]]
In 1949, TAC began testing the Martin B-61, later redesignated as [[MGM-1 Matador|TM-61 Matador]] surface-to-surface [[cruise missile]] at [[Holloman AFB]], New Mexico. The initial flight ended in a crash, but the second launch was successful and outran the chase aircraft. Testing continued with launches of 46 missiles at both Holloman AFB and the [[Eastern Range|Long Range Proving Ground]] at [[Cape Canaveral AFS|Cape Canaveral]], Florida, and in March 1954 the first operational missile squadron in the U.S. Air Force, the 1st Pilotless Bomber Squadron, was deployed to [[Bitburg Air Base]], Germany.  Launches at Holloman and Cape Canaveral continued until 1963, at which time the missile was redesignated again as the [[MGM-1 Matador]].

In 1954, an improved missile, the [[MGM-13 Mace|TM-76A Mace]] (later redesignated the [[MGM-13 Mace|CGM-13 Mace]] began development at Holloman AFB, with its first launch in 1956. The ATRAN (Automatic Terrain Recognition and Navigation) Mace "A" was launched from a mobile transporter/launcher while the inertially guided Mace "B" was launched from a hardened bunker. Both used a solid fuel booster rocket for initial acceleration and an [[Allison J33]] turbojet for flight. The TM-76B, redesignated as CGM-13B remained on alert until 30 April 1969 with the 71st Tactical Missile Squadron at Bitburg AB, and until October 1969 with the 498th Tactical Missile Group at [[Kadena Air Base]], Okinawa. As TAC was responsible for training crews that were assigned to both PACAF and USAFE, the only tactical missiles in TAC's inventory were the training missiles of the 4504th Missile Training Wing at [[Naval Training Center Orlando|Orlando AFB]], Florida.  Ninth Air Force (TAC), while headquartered at [[Shaw AFB]], South Carolina, maintained the USAF Tactical Missile School at [[Naval Training Center Orlando|Orlando AFB]] under command of the 4504 MTW from 1956 until 1966, when the MGM-13A was phased out and the remaining CGM-13Bs were transferred to the Lowry Technical Training Center at [[Lowry AFB]], Colorado.

The [[U.S. Army]] had largely assumed the tactical ground launched nuclear missile program until the 1980s when TAC's [[BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile|BGM-109G "Gryphon"]] ground launched cruise missile (GLCM) was deployed along with the Army's [[Pershing II]] ballistic missile to counter the mobile medium- and intermediate- range ballistic nuclear missiles deployed by the Soviet Union in Eastern Bloc countries.  This entire class of weaponry was eliminated by the 1987 [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]] (INF treaty) and removed by 1990, thus reducing both the number and the threat of nuclear warheads.<ref name="multi3"/>