Volunteers and 28th Maintenance Squadron maintainers at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., refurbished one of the remaining AGM-28 Hound Dog cruise missiles for display at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum in Box Elder. The dilapidated former nuclear cruise missile was found “basically languishing in a hanger,” before volunteers began the challenging task of restoring it, said museum curator Duane Cole, reported the Rapid City Journal. Designed for external carriage on the B-52, the 43-foot-long Hound Dog entered service with Strategic Air Comand in the early 1960s. Nearly 700 were built. The Air Force retired the last AGM-28 in 1978. The museum unveiled the missile on May 7. (See also National Museum of the US Air Force AGM-28 fact sheet and Day of the Hound Dog from Air Force Magazine’s archives.)
Since President Donald Trump first unveiled his “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative in late January, much of the focus for it has been focused on space—how the Pentagon may deploy dozens, if not hundreds, of sensors and interceptors into orbit to protect the continental U.S. from missile barrages. But the Air…