Dec 242012
Not much info on this as yet. An early 1958 General Electric study to provide the Snark intercontinental cruise missile with a nuclear turbojet to give the craft 200 hours of Mach 0.9 performance at 30,000 feet. As the Snark had only a single warhead, it’s not at all clear what this performance was hoped to accomplish.
The obvious answer is to provide a loiter capability – launch the missile when things get tense, and have it orbit over the ocean somewhere out of the range of hostile fighters. If it’s time for nukey goodness, send the go order, otherwise have the missile ditch in a designated area of shallow water. Then, send in the Navy to salvage the warheads. Very carefully.