The AIR-2 Genie was an unguided rocket tipped with a "small" nuclear warhead that was developed by the United States military to destroy strategic bombers. It was developed in 1955, and became operational in 1957, when it was also tested.

The planned use of the weapon was for a scenario where the Soviet Union sent hordes of strategic bombers with nuclear weapons to destroy the United States (and/or Canada). Closing in and destroying strategic bombers with the type of fighter aircraft that had fought in World War II would have been very difficult. Guided missiles didn't really exist yet. And nuclear weapons, which had first been used only ten years previously, had become advanced enough that they could be made small enough to fit in a rocket. Thus, the military came up with a simple solution: put a rocket with a warhead on a high-speed interceptor, fly it at a formation of enemy aircraft, so that the nuclear blast (although "small") could destroy them without needing to be guided towards a specific target. "But" you might be thinking "aircraft are relatively speaking, pretty fragile, isn't firing a nuclear missile at them kind of overkill, like killing a mosquito with a sledgehammer?" and the answer to that is probably: it was the 1950s. "And", you might also be thinking, "what about the pilot of the intercepting plane?" and the answer is, as soon as they released the missile, they would turn around and go very fast in the other direction. But I have done some envelope math and figured out that a 2100 mph missile would take about 12 seconds to cross six miles, which even with a pilot's reaction times, makes me think that they wouldn't have much chance of getting away from their own blast radius. Given the possibly millions of people who could die in a nuclear attack, it might have been possible that the pilot was expected to take one for the team.

The concept of a nuclear-tipped rocket didn't last for long, for several reasons. First was that the strategic picture had changed: a nuclear attack would most likely come from ICBMs, and would most likely be unstoppable---thus, the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction. Advances in guidance also changed the picture, with the AIM-9 Sidewinder being developed around the same time. The 20 pounds of conventional high explosive, when guided, were more effective than the 1.5 equivalent kilotons on an AIR-2 Genie, even though that is literally 100,000 times as much explosive power. The coming of the Vietnam War and other "smaller" conflicts also changed the strategic aims of the United States. The high speed interceptors (such as the F-106) that flew weapons like the AIR-2 Genie were not very versatile in other types of conflicts, and were superseded by more general purpose jet fighters like the F-4 Phantom.

The development of aerospace technology is astonishing. Twenty years before the existence of jet-fighters and jet-bombers in 1955, there were still biplanes in front line service. Ten years before the development of the Air-2 Genie, the first nuclear bomb was used in warfare. And by 1955, both of these technologies had converged to the point where a supersonic fighter could fire a supersonic missile, with a "miniature" nuclear weapon in a 10 foot by 18 inch missile. It was a dizzying development of technology--- that was just as quickly superseded by the development of computer and electronic technology, and more charitably, by a realization that nuclear war was something that no one would win.



https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197594/mcdonnell-douglas-air-2a-genie-rocket/
https://www.minot.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/806121/the-air-2-genie-and-tactical-nuclear-weapons/
https://www.boeing.com/history/products/mb-1-air-2-genie-missile.page

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