Weapon System

This article is about naming of US military programs. For the general topic of weapons systems and for other US designations, see Weapon. For United States military aircraft designation systems, see Joint Electronics Type Designation System.

Weapon System was a United States Armed Forces military designation scheme for experimental weapons^[2] (e.g., WS-220) before they received an official name — e.g., under a military aircraft designation system. The new designator reflected the increasing complexity of weapons that required separate development of auxiliary systems or components.

Legend for Numeric Designations
CL: Lockheed Corporation
D: Douglas Aircraft Company
NA: North American Aviation^[1]
WS (Weapon System)

In November 1949, the Air Force decided to build the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger around a fire-control system.^[3] This was "the real beginning of the weapon system approach [and the] aircraft would be integrated into the weapon system "as a whole from the beginning, so the characteristics of each component were compatible with the others".^[4]

Around February 1950, an Air Research and Development Command "study prepared by Maj Gen Gordon P. Saville...recommended that a 'systems approach' to new weapons be adopted [whereby] development of a weapon "system" required development of support equipment as well as the actual hardware itself."^[5]

The first WS designation was WS-100A.^[6]

US weapon programs were often begun as numbered government specifications such as an Advanced Development Objective (e.g., ADO-40) or a General Operational Requirement (e.g., GOR.80), although some programs were initially identified by contractor numbers (e.g., CL-282).^{[lower-alpha 1]}

List of Weapon Systems

List of weapon system programs for US military systems

Number	Project
WS-104A[1]	SM-64 Navaho
WS-107A	SM-65 Atlas
WS-110	North American XB-70 Valkyrie
WS-117L (GOR.80)[7]	Advanced Reconnaissance System (originally Project 1115);[8] recoverable capsule - Pied Piper/Sentry/SAMOS; television transmission - unfeasible;[9] Subsystem G: MiDAS
WS-119B (USAF 7795)[10]	Bold Orion ASAT
WS-119L	Project Moby Dick (originally Project Genetrix)[11]
WS-120A	BGM-75 AICBM
WS-124A	WS-124A Flying Cloud Project[12]
WS-125	(B-72)
WS-133A	AN/DRC-8 Emergency Rocket Communications System (Program 494L) LGM-30 Minuteman
WS-199	Anti-satellite weapon
WS-199B	Bold Orion
WS-199C	High Virgo
WS-199D	Alpha Draco
WS-201A	1954 interceptor
WS-224A	Phase I: BMEWS, Phase II: Wizard missile system[13]
WS-306A	Republic F-105 Thunderchief (misidentified as WS-3061[14])
WS315A	PGM-17 Thor missile[15]
WS-324A[16]	General Dynamics F-111

Notes

1. When a government program number is not available, a contractor number (if available) is used in the table, e.g., Lockheed CL-282 for the U-2.

References

1. "North American SM-64 Navaho". www.designation-systems.net.
2. "MX - Military and Government". www.acronymfinder.com.
3. Donald 2003, pp. 68–69
4. Grant Historical Study No. 126 p. 53
5. Daso 1997, p. 166.
6. Parsch, Andreas. "Designations Of U.S. Air Force Projects". Retrieved 2020-01-18.
7. Burroughs 1998, p. 80–87. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBurroughs1998 (help)
8. Stares 1985, p. 30.
9. Burroughs 1998, p. 87. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBurroughs1998 (help)
10. Burroughs 1998, p. 139. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBurroughs1998 (help)
11. Stares 1985, p. 31–32.
12. Parsch, Andreas (21 March 2006). "WS-124A Flying Cloud". Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 4: Undesignated Vehicles. Designation-Systems. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
13. NORAD Historical Summary 1958 January–June, p. 106
14. "Research Report - Index to Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-16. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
15. "Correspondence: Weapon System". Flight. 6 February 1959. Retrieved 2011-09-13 – via Flightglobal Archive.
16. "F-111 Aadvark". Archived from the original on 2012-03-03. Retrieved 2023-10-29.

• Burroughs, William E. (1988) [1986]. Deep Black (paperback ed.). New York: Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 0-425-10879-1.
• Daso, Dik (Major, USAF) (September 1997). Architects of American Air Supremacy: General Hap Arnold and Dr Theodore von Kármán. Air University Press. pp. 76, 166.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Stares, Paul B. (1985), The Militarization of Space, Ithaca: Cornell University Press