KIRTLAND AFB, N.M. -- On July 22, 1971, the Boeing AGM-69A SRAM initial flight test program was completed successfully, with 40 test flights at White Sands Missile Test Range.

The Boeing Aerospace Company developed and produced the Short-Range Attack Missile. The SRAM was 14 feet long, 18 inches across, and weighed approximately 2,230 pounds. Armed with a nuclear warhead and equipped with a simple inertial guidance system, the SRAM was propelled to its range of 20 to 50 nautical miles by a solid-propellant rocket motor. B-52 G and H model bomber s could carry up to 20 SRAMs, six on each of two wing pylons and eight on a rotary launcher in the bomb bay. The FB-111could be equipped with six missiles, two mounted internally and four carried on wing pylons. The B-1 B was designed to carry up to 24 SRAMs on three rotary launchers, each equipped with eight SRAMs. Originally, the SRAM's primary mission was to improve the survivability of the SAC manned bomber force through the "neutralization of surface-to-air missile defenses." The mission was later expanded to encompass a secondary objective, the destruction of selected strategic targets.

The SRAM program was inaugurated on Nov. 23, 1963, when Strategic Air Command submitted a requirement to the Air Staff for a short-range air-to-surface attack missile for its G and H model B-52 Stratofortresses. The Air Force expanded the SAC proposal to include the FB-111 and possibly the future B-1 bomber. Secretary of Defense McNamara approved the initial development of the air-launched guided missile weapon system on March 23, 1965. Boeing received a contract on Oct. 31, 1966, to develop and produce the SRAM, and SAC accepted delivery of the first production-line SRAM on March 1, 1972. The first B-52 and FB-111 units to become operational with the new missile were the 42nd Bomb Wing (B-52G), Loring AFB, Maine on Sept. 15, 1972, and the 509th Bomb Wing (FB-111), Pease AFB, N.H., on Jan. 1, 1973. On Aug. 20, 1975, the last 1,500 SRAMs were delivered to SAC's 320th Bombardment Wing, Mather AFB, Calif. The first live launch of a SRAM from a SAC operational B-1B took place on June 3, 1987.

The SRAM's initial 40 test launches were conducted between 1969 and 1971 from FB-111 s and B-52 aircraft at White Sands Missile Range. The development test program was completed on July 22, 1971, with the missile exceeding specification requirements for range, accuracy, radar cross-section and reliability. After 1971, 123 more SRAMs were successfully tested during the follow-on test and evaluation program.