RIM-2 Terrier

The RIM-2 Terrier was a two-stage, medium-range naval surface-to-air missile built by Convair, a division of General Dynamics, and among the earliest guided missiles to arm United States Navy ships. It grew out of the Navy's Bumblebee Project, which sought a middle layer of fleet air defense between carrier fighters and antiaircraft guns. Test launched in January 1953, it reached operational status aboard the cruiser Canberra on June 15, 1956. Early rounds rode a radar beam to about 10 nautical miles at Mach 1.8, while later semi-active radar homing versions reached about 40 nautical miles at up to Mach 3. The Navy designated it SAM-N-7 until 1963. It was the primary missile of most Navy cruisers and guided missile frigates built in the 1960s, and the Marine Corps briefly fielded land-launched Terrier battalions. A Terrier fired from USS Sterett was claimed to have downed a North Vietnamese MiG-17F in 1972. The Navy retired it in 1995 and the Italian Navy, its last foreign user, in 2006; the RIM-67 Standard replaced it.