Project Kingfisher

Project Kingfisher was initiated in August 1944, in response to the increasing difficulty of torpedo bomber aircraft to successfully complete attacks in the face of the increasing defensive firepower of ships during late World War II. The program was intended to produce standoff delivery systems to allow for the release of torpedoes from outside of the range of enemy defenses, specifically calling for "radar-controlled, subsonic, self-homing, air-borne missiles...to deliver explosive charge below water line of floating targets". Developed by the Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) and the National Bureau of Standards, under the direction of Hugh Latimer Dryden and Edward Conden. and produced a series of six different missile designs, designated 'A' through 'F', using a variety of payload and guidance options. Of these designs, four – Kingfisher C through F – were determined to be suitable for full development; due to the end of World War II, reducing the priority of the project, and full development of the selected operational versions beginning during 1947. ==Variants==

Kingfisher A Kingfisher A, also known as SWOD (Special Warfare Ordnance Device) Mark 11, was a glide bomb design, intended to carry a Mark 21 Mod 2 torpedo; the weapon was intended for use against surface targets in low-threat environments, where the attacking aircraft did not have to worry about defensive cover from fighter aircraft. Considered to be an interim design before fully powered missiles were available, these took place late in 1946 using the PB4Y-2 Privateer as a launch aircraft. Its payload was intended to be a plunge bomb, an unguided projectile that upon release would glide briefly along a ballistic trajectory before sinking alongside a target and detonating underwater. By the time Petrel entered operational service in 1956, launched by the P2V Neptune patrol aircraft, Petrel was withdrawn from operational use by 1959, as it was useless against submerged submarines and the U.S. Navy placed a low priority on defense against surface vessels, considering them an insignificant threat by comparison. and the missile was fitted with a pulsejet engine for a range of up to from its launching aircraft at a speed of Mach 0.7, with guidance via active radar homing. Built by McDonnell Aircraft and given the designation AUM-N-6 Puffin, the missile began flight testing in 1948, Trials demonstrated, however, that Puffin did not meet the Navy's changing requirements, and it was cancelled in October 1949. ==Aftermath==

Although Project Kingfisher largely failed to result in the operational weapons it had been intended to produce, with only Kingfisher C, the AUM-N-2 Petrel, seeing operational service, the concept of an unpiloted torpedo-carrying aircraft-type missile was developed by other nations, with the French Malafon missile and Australian Ikara being markedly similar in concept to the Kingfisher E/Grebe. ==See also==