Tacit Rainbow: Northrop AGM/BGM-136 Anti-Radar Drone

[Scott Kenny]

Was cancelling Tacit Raibow a mistake? As it seems like it had a lot of promise.

Purely on promise, I'd say yes it was a mistake.

I'm not sure about the problems it had.

 

[BillRo]

I don't know if Paul will approve of these images going here, but they are too much fun to toss. My wife was going through a box of old pix and pulled these out; she was Admin Assistant to Fred Corey, Northrop Ventura's VP and Program Manager for Tacit Rainbow. He was obviously sent these by the SPO after the program was cancelled and are dated June of '91. They depict the funeral of TR held outside the SPO office in Dayton. I am sure these days this would be frowned upon but I believe the statute of limitations has run out! I do not know the names of any of these Air Force folks.

The epitaph reads:
1981-1991
In Remembrance of
The Tacit Rainbow Missile

Here it lies all broken and shattered
Tried to fly but just got battered

Hit it's target but too late
SAF/AQ had already decided its fate

Laid to rest without a user
Scorned and shamed like some kind of loser

So now we say goodbye with heavy heart
A lump in our throat and the urge to depart.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

That's a unique bit of program history, absolutely fine here.

I had to look up St Jude (written on the missile) - the patron saint of lost causes, apparently.

 

[publiusr]

I identify with that and Dunsany’s hearth god Jabim…the god of lost and broken things…

 

[Hicks]

Just in case, the somewhat stealth looking thing in "TR Funeral2.jpg" is a "Shadow Bat" from Coleco'Starcom toy line (distributed by Mattel in Europe).



https://www.parrygamepreserve.com/toys/starcom/shadowbat.php

 

[seruriermarshal]

I don't know if Paul will approve of these images going here, but they are too much fun to toss. My wife was going through a box of old pix and pulled these out; she was Admin Assistant to Fred Corey, Northrop Ventura's VP and Program Manager for Tacit Rainbow. He was obviously sent these by the SPO after the program was cancelled and are dated June of '91. They depict the funeral of TR held outside the SPO office in Dayton. I am sure these days this would be frowned upon but I believe the statute of limitations has run out! I do not know the names of any of these Air Force folks.

The epitaph reads:
1981-1991
In Remembrance of
The Tacit Rainbow Missile

Here it lies all broken and shattered
Tried to fly but just got battered

Hit it's target but too late
SAF/AQ had already decided its fate

Laid to rest without a user
Scorned and shamed like some kind of loser

So now we say goodbye with heavy heart
A lump in our throat and the urge to depart.

Any information about SAF/AQ ?

 

[TomS]

Any information about SAF/AQ ?

It just stands for the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics).

 

[LEG]

Ground-launched TSSAM was in the first round of development flight tests. The final test of this round was due to go the day after the US Army cancelled it's participation in the program. This test would've tested a number of fixes from problems we'd found in the previous tests. Believe me, the test footage of the launch was always quite impressive; the footage of the last actual test flight was rather less so due to problems that were found and subsequently corrected. The test previous to that one was nearly picture perfect. I know, I was on that program with special responsibilities for the Army variant. If the Army hadn't pulled out, there was also an extended-range variant under preliminary design that traded a modest drop in payload for significantly more range.

Now, yes, I know the differences between the air-launched and ground-launched versions, but I'm not at all sure if I'm yet allowed to get too detailed here.

Oh, there was also a very preliminary study on combining aspects of the ground-launched and air-launched vehicles to produce a ship-launched one.

My understanding is that TSSAM was the aerodynamic bus vehicle for War Breaker and the flattened box design of the available drawings was to accommodate both very large fuel tanks and the payload bays for the TGSM like mini-missile Kill Effectors which the missile's complex, costly and autonomous (AI like or maybe early Satcomms?) MMW/LiDAR system assigned targets to over the course of a 15-18hr missile endurance.

When Saber/Spider went away with START/INF, the missile became redundant.

I've also heard that LLAD/LOCPOD was testing the _upwards_ ejection system for TSSAM, as early as 1980-83. If so, doesn't this strongly imply a VLO theater delivery system using Have Slick conformal carriage because TSSAM is a really awkward shape for CSRL or Clipping and HSAB would be limited to 4 Stations.

True/False?

TSSAM

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/data/attachments/213/213133-c779be6c533fdfa71b8402ea4a7078c1.jpg

War Breaker

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rob-Mahoney-2/publication/237785060/figure/fig1/AS:298936385458177@1448283396345/DARPA-Smart-Weapons-Program-Concept_Q320.jpg