Editing CIM-10 Bomarc (section)

===Bomarc A===
Formally organized in 1946 under USAAF project MX-606, by 1950 Boeing had launched more than 100 test rockets in various configurations, all under the designator XSAM-A-1 GAPA. The tests were very promising, and Boeing received a USAF contract in 1949 to develop a production design under project MX-1599.<ref name="Gibson">Gibson 1996, pp. 200–201.</ref>

The MX-1599 missile was to be a ramjet-powered, nuclear-armed long-range surface-to-air missile to defend the Continental United States from high-flying bombers. The [[Michigan Aeronautical Research Center|Michigan Aerospace Research Center]] (MARC) was added to the project soon afterward, and this gave the new missile its name Bomarc (for Boeing and MARC). In 1951, the USAF decided to emphasize its point of view that missiles were nothing else than pilotless aircraft by assigning aircraft designators to its missile projects, and anti-aircraft missiles received F-for-Fighter designations.{{clarification needed|date=February 2024}} The Bomarc became the '''F-99'''.<ref name="Gibson"/>

By this time, the Army's Nike project was progressing well and would enter operational service in 1953. This led the Air Force to begin a lengthy series of attacks on the Army in the press, a common occurrence at the time known as "[[policy by press release]]". When the Army released its first official information on Ajax to the press, the Air Force responded by leaking information on BOMARC to [[Aviation Week & Space Technology|Aviation Week]],<ref>''Aviation Week'', 6 April 1953, p. 15.</ref> and continued to denigrate Nike in the press over the next few years, in one case showing a graphic of Washington being destroyed by nuclear bombs that Ajax failed to stop.<ref name=pop>{{cite magazine | date = 1956-09-01 | title = Will NIKE Protect Us from Red Bombers? | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cSYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA152 | magazine = [[Popular Science]]| volume = 169  | issue = 3  | access-date =  2021-02-18| pages = 152–155 | issn = 0161-7370 | oclc = 488612811}}</ref>

Tests of the XF-99 test vehicles began in September 1952 and continued through early 1955.{{r|McMullen1980_312}} The XF-99 tested only the liquid-fueled booster rocket, which would accelerate the missile to ramjet ignition speed. In February 1955, tests of the XF-99A propulsion test vehicles began. These included live ramjets, but still had no guidance system or warhead. The designation YF-99A had been reserved for the operational test vehicles. In August 1955, the USAF discontinued the use of aircraft-like type designators for missiles, and the XF-99A and YF-99A became XIM-99A and YIM-99A, respectively. Originally the USAF had allocated the designation IM-69, but this was changed (possibly at Boeing's request to keep number 99) to '''IM-99''' in October 1955.

By this time, Ajax was widely deployed around the United States and some overseas locations, and the Army was beginning to develop its much more powerful successor, [[Nike Hercules]]. Hercules was an existential threat to BOMARC, as its much greater range and nuclear warhead filled many of the roles that BOMARC was designed for. A new round of fighting in the press broke out, capped by an article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' entitled "Air Force Calls Army Nike Unfit To Guard Nation".<ref>{{cite news |title=Air Force Calls Army Unfit to Guard Nation |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=21 May 1956 |page=1}}</ref>

In October 1957, the first YIM-99A production-representative prototype flew with full guidance, and succeeded in passing the target within the intended warhead's destructive radius. In late 1957, Boeing received the production contract for the IM-99A Bomarc A, and in September 1959, the first IM-99A squadron became operational.<ref name="Gibson"/>

The IM-99A had an operational radius of {{convert|200|mi|km}} and was designed to fly at [[Mach number|Mach]]&nbsp;2.5–2.8 at a cruising altitude of {{convert|60000|ft|m}}. It was {{convert|46.6|ft|m|abbr=on}} long and weighed {{convert|15500|lb|kg}}. Its armament was either a {{convert|1000|lb|kg|adj=on}} conventional warhead or a [[W40 (nuclear warhead)|W40 nuclear warhead]] (7–10 [[TNT equivalent|kiloton]] yield). A [[Liquid-propellant rocket|liquid-fuel rocket]] engine boosted the Bomarc to Mach 2, when its [[Marquardt RJ43|Marquardt RJ43-MA-3]] [[ramjet]] engines, fueled by 80-octane gasoline, would take over for the remainder of the flight. This was the same model of engine used to power the [[Lockheed X-7]], the [[Lockheed AQM-60 Kingfisher]] drone used to test air defenses, and the [[Lockheed D-21]] launched from the back of an [[Lockheed A-12#M-21|M-21]], although the Bomarc and Kingfisher engines used different materials due to the longer duration of their flights.<ref name="Gibson"/>