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.)
The Air Force has embraced new technical approaches like open mission systems and rapid software updates for cutting-edge aircraft like the B-21 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Increasingly, though, the service is also working to apply these to its older, “legacy” aircraft, officials said this week.