Type Air-to-surface missile Used by United States Navy Number built 0 | Place of origin United States Designed 1950–1953 | |
Manufacturer Glenn L. Martin Company | ||
The ASM-N-5 Gorgon V was an unpowered air-to-surface missile, developed by the Glenn L. Martin Company during the early 1950s for use by the United States Navy as a chemical weapon delivery vehicle. Developed from the earlier PTV-N-2 Gorgon IV test vehicle, the program was cancelled without any Gorgon Vs seeing service.
Design and development
The Gorgon V project was begun in 1950 as a project to develop an air-to-surface missile capable of dispersing chemical warfare agents over a combat area. The design of the missile was contracted to the Glenn L. Martin Company, which used the company's earlier PTV-N-2 Gorgon IV ramjet test missile as a basis for the weapon's design. The Gorgon V was to be a long, slender missile, with swept wings and conventional tail. The Gorgon IV's ramjet engine, slung underneath the missile's tail, was replaced in the Gorgon V with a X14A aerosol generator, developed by the Edo Aircraft Corporation.
Operational use of the Gorgon V was intended to be based on two missiles being carried by a launching aircraft. These would be released at an altitude of 35,000 feet (11,000 m), the Gorgon V would be piloted by autopilot in a high-subsonic dive. Upon reaching an altitude of 500 feet (150 m) or less, as measured by a radar altimeter, the aerosol generator would be activated, dispersing chemical agent over an area of up to 12 mi (20 km) by 5.6 mi (9 km).
Development of the Gorgon V continued throughout the Korean War; in 1953, it was projected that the weapon would be ready for operational service by 1955. However later that year, the Gorgon V was cancelled by the U.S. Navy; it is unknown if any prototype vehicles had been constructed before the termination of the project.