{"id":22995263,"date":"2026-09-17T12:45:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/sm-62-snark-cruise-missile-lost-amazon-1956\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T12:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:46:07","slug":"sm-62-snark-cruise-missile-lost-amazon-1956","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/sm-62-snark-cruise-missile-lost-amazon-1956\/","title":{"rendered":"The Snark: America&rsquo;s Nuclear Cruise Missile That Flew Into the Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>On 5 December 1956 the United States Air Force launched a nuclear-capable cruise missile from Cape Canaveral, sent it towards Puerto Rico, and then lost it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Not lost as in crashed. Lost as in it kept flying, ignored every command including the self-destruct, outran the fighters scrambled to catch it, crossed the Caribbean, passed the coast of Venezuela and disappeared into the Amazon basin. Nobody has ever established where it came down.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The missile was called the Snark, after a creature in a Lewis Carroll poem that, when you finally catch it, may turn out to be something else entirely and cause you to vanish away. Somebody at Northrop had a sense of humour, and no idea how apt it would turn out to be.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f6f8;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:26px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>What it was:<\/strong> Northrop B-62, later SM-62 Snark &mdash; America&rsquo;s first long-range nuclear cruise missile<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Weight:<\/strong> About 48,000 lb<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Launch:<\/strong> Two rocket boosters off a mobile platform, then turbojet cruise<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Guidance:<\/strong> Inertial, corrected by a stellar tracker reading the stars<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Operator:<\/strong> Strategic Air Command, 702nd Strategic Missile Wing, Presque Isle AFB, Maine<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Declared operational:<\/strong> 28 February 1961<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0;font-size:15px\"><strong>Deactivated:<\/strong> 25 June 1961 &mdash; under four months later<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Before there were ICBMs, there was this<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>It is easy to forget how hard the intercontinental problem looked in the early 1950s. Rockets that could throw a warhead between continents did not yet exist. What did exist was aeroplanes, and the obvious idea was to build an aeroplane that flew itself all the way and did not come back.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>So Northrop built one. The Snark was 48,000 lb of swept-wing, turbojet-powered aircraft with no cockpit and a thermonuclear warhead in the nose. Two solid rocket boosters shoved it off a wheeled launcher; the jet took it the rest of the way. Strategic Air Command pushed hard for it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The hard part was never propulsion. It was knowing where you are. Over five thousand miles of open ocean with no landmarks and no satellite navigation, the Snark had to find a target using an inertial platform corrected by a stellar tracker &mdash; a device that looked up, found stars, and worked out the missile&rsquo;s position from them. In 1955 this was close to science fiction, and it behaved like it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/usaf-snark-missile-maintenance-1957.jpg\" alt=\"Two US Air Force airmen working on an SM-62 Snark missile inside a hangar in 1957\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Airmen at work on a Snark in 1957. Note the Coca-Cola crate at the bottom of the frame &mdash; this was cutting-edge strategic weaponry, maintained in a draughty hangar. US Air Force photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Snark-infested waters<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Testing began in New Mexico and moved to the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, where it went badly in ways that are almost impressive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The first Snark launched at the Cape crashed fifteen seconds after leaving the rail, because its drag chute deployed on the way up. The second refused steering commands five minutes into flight, went out of control and had to be destroyed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Across 1954 and 1955, Northrop launched eleven Snark A and B models designed to be recovered and reused. The number recovered was zero.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The C models were deliberately flown into the Atlantic at the end of their runs. Between the ones that were ditched on purpose and the ones that went in by themselves, the stretch of ocean off the Eastern Test Range acquired a nickname among the people who worked there: <strong>Snark-infested waters<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It is one of the great pieces of engineering gallows humour, and it was entirely earned.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zyLWYZXdf28\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Period USAF film of the Snark programme, from the PeriscopeFilm archive.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The one that got away<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The D model was the one with the Mk 1 inertial guidance system, and by late 1956 it was starting to work. Three flights had gone out southeast, turned around over Grand Turk and come home. The third had even landed back on a Cape runway on skids.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The fourth was Northrop airframe N-3309, USAF serial 53-8172. It launched from Launch Complex 1 on 5 December 1956 with orders to fly towards Puerto Rico, turn, and return.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It went out fine. Then the tracking radars showed it drifting right &mdash; eight miles off for every hundred miles flown. Then it stopped accepting commands.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>By the time it reached Mayaguana in the Bahamas the range safety officer was told to terminate the flight. The destruct signals did nothing. Stations on Grand Turk, in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and St Lucia were told to track it. Three of them got radar contact. The commands still did nothing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Someone telephoned Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico and asked for fighters. By the time they were airborne the Snark was gone.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>At the last tracking station, according to an account by a man who worked on the range, the four console operators formed what witnesses described as a conga line and took turns marching past the range safety console, each stopping to stab at the destruct button. None of it made any difference.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Someone else rang the State Department, to warn them that a nuclear-capable cruise missile was heading for South America. The State Department&rsquo;s response is not recorded.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/sm-62-snark-missile-on-display.jpg\" alt=\"A Northrop SM-62 Snark intercontinental cruise missile\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Snark: no cockpit, no landing gear on operational rounds, and a thermonuclear warhead in the nose. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The post-flight analysis found the cause, and it is beautifully mundane. The flight-termination system failed because the missile&rsquo;s bus-bar voltage had dropped below the level needed to switch the destruct circuit over to its emergency battery. The self-destruct had not been disabled, or jammed, or sabotaged. It had simply run out of electricity. Later Snarks were given a second power bus.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The missile itself was last seen heading southeast over the Amazon. There are reports that a Brazilian farmer found it in the early 1980s, and another that hunters found it in Maranh&atilde;o and a local television station filmed the wreck. The arithmetic argues against Maranh&atilde;o: with a maximum range around 2,450 miles it could not have got that far, and would have come down in Amap&aacute;, near the border with French Guiana.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Nobody has produced the airframe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">It did work, eventually. Briefly.<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The programme did get there. On 31 October 1957 a Snark flew from Florida to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, making it the first American missile to achieve intercontinental range. On 18 March 1960 the 702nd Strategic Missile Wing put the first Snark on alert at Presque Isle, Maine, pointed across the pole at the Soviet Union.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The wing was declared operational on 28 February 1961.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>One month later, on 28 March, President Kennedy&rsquo;s special defence budget message directed the Snark be phased out. The reasoning was short and brutal: the weapon was obsolete and of marginal military value next to ballistic missiles, with low reliability, no ability to penetrate defences, no positive control, and launch sites that were vulnerable and unprotected.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>On 25 June 1961 the 702nd was deactivated. The Snark had been an operational American nuclear weapon for under four months.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The Snark may not have distinguished itself in its first 61 test flights, but No. 62 certainly was one for the books.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>J. P. Anderson<\/strong> &mdash; communications engineer, Atlantic Missile Range, writing in <em>Air Force Magazine<\/em>, December 2004<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Why it matters<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>It would be easy to file the Snark as a punchline, and the nickname makes that tempting. The more interesting reading is that it was an entirely reasonable idea that arrived about fifty years early.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>A subsonic, air-breathing, terrain-hugging cruise missile that navigates itself across an ocean and hits a target without a pilot is not a stupid concept. It is the Tomahawk. The difference is that the Tomahawk had TERCOM, digital computing, GPS and forty more years of miniaturisation, and the Snark had valves, gyroscopes that drifted, and a telescope looking for stars.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Air Force gave up on the long-range cruise missile for two decades after this, then came back to it in the 1970s and has not stopped since. The Snark was not the wrong answer. It was the right answer, attempted with the wrong century&rsquo;s electronics.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>And somewhere under the canopy in northern Brazil, in all probability, it is still there.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: J. P. Anderson, &ldquo;The Day They Lost the Snark&rdquo;, Air Force Magazine, December 2004; US Air Force historical records; Federation of American Scientists; CSIS Missile Threat; GlobalSecurity.org.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Obsolete and of marginal military value.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>President John F. Kennedy<\/strong> &mdash; special defence budget message, 28 March 1961, on the Snark<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KY20dO7Adyw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Further archive footage of the Snark in testing and on its launcher.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qc3xZ5f-VkQ\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>A compilation of USAF Snark material from the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What was the SM-62 Snark?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Northrop SM-62 Snark was America\u2019s first long-range nuclear cruise missile, an unmanned jet-powered aircraft of about 48,000 pounds launched by rocket boosters from a mobile platform. It was operated briefly by Strategic Air Command from Presque Isle Air Force Base in Maine.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was the sea off Cape Canaveral called Snark-infested waters?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Because so many Snarks ended up in it. Test failures put missiles into the Atlantic repeatedly, and C-model rounds were deliberately ditched there at the end of their flights. Staff at the Eastern Test Range coined the nickname, and it stuck.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Did a Snark missile really disappear into the Amazon?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. On 5 December 1956 a Snark launched from Cape Canaveral drifted off course, stopped accepting commands, ignored its self-destruct, outran scrambled fighters and flew on past Venezuela towards Brazil. It was never officially recovered, though reports of a find circulated in the 1980s.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why did the Snark self-destruct system fail?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The post-flight analysis found the missile bus-bar voltage dropped below the level required to switch the flight-termination system over to its emergency battery power. The destruct circuit simply lost electrical power. Later Snarks were fitted with a second power bus to prevent it.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did the Snark navigate without GPS?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">It used an inertial guidance platform corrected by a stellar tracker, an instrument that observed stars in flight and used them to fix the missile\u2019s position. Inertial platforms drift over long distances, and the star fixes were meant to correct that drift. Accuracy remained poor.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How long was the Snark operational?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Under four months. The 702nd Strategic Missile Wing was declared operational on 28 February 1961. President Kennedy directed the missile be phased out on 28 March 1961, and the wing was deactivated on 25 June 1961.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was the Snark cancelled?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Ballistic missiles overtook it. Kennedy\u2019s 1961 defence message described the Snark as obsolete and of marginal military value beside ICBMs, citing low reliability, an inability to penetrate defences, a lack of positive control, and vulnerable unprotected launch sites.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Was the Snark idea fundamentally wrong?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Not really, just early. A subsonic self-navigating cruise missile flying a long distance to a precise target is essentially the modern Tomahawk. The Snark attempted it with valves, drifting gyroscopes and a star tracker, decades before the computing and navigation technology existed to make it work.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the SM-62 Snark?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Northrop SM-62 Snark was America\u2019s first long-range nuclear cruise missile, an unmanned jet-powered aircraft of about 48,000 pounds launched by rocket boosters from a mobile platform. It was operated briefly by Strategic Air Command from Presque Isle Air Force Base in Maine.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why was the sea off Cape Canaveral called Snark-infested waters?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Because so many Snarks ended up in it. Test failures put missiles into the Atlantic repeatedly, and C-model rounds were deliberately ditched there at the end of their flights. Staff at the Eastern Test Range coined the nickname, and it stuck.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Did a Snark missile really disappear into the Amazon?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. On 5 December 1956 a Snark launched from Cape Canaveral drifted off course, stopped accepting commands, ignored its self-destruct, outran scrambled fighters and flew on past Venezuela towards Brazil. It was never officially recovered, though reports of a find circulated in the 1980s.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why did the Snark self-destruct system fail?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The post-flight analysis found the missile bus-bar voltage dropped below the level required to switch the flight-termination system over to its emergency battery power. The destruct circuit simply lost electrical power. Later Snarks were fitted with a second power bus to prevent it.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How did the Snark navigate without GPS?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"It used an inertial guidance platform corrected by a stellar tracker, an instrument that observed stars in flight and used them to fix the missile\u2019s position. Inertial platforms drift over long distances, and the star fixes were meant to correct that drift. Accuracy remained poor.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How long was the Snark operational?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Under four months. The 702nd Strategic Missile Wing was declared operational on 28 February 1961. President Kennedy directed the missile be phased out on 28 March 1961, and the wing was deactivated on 25 June 1961.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why was the Snark cancelled?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Ballistic missiles overtook it. Kennedy\u2019s 1961 defence message described the Snark as obsolete and of marginal military value beside ICBMs, citing low reliability, an inability to penetrate defences, a lack of positive control, and vulnerable unprotected launch sites.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Was the Snark idea fundamentally wrong?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Not really, just early. A subsonic self-navigating cruise missile flying a long distance to a precise target is essentially the modern Tomahawk. The Snark attempted it with valves, drifting gyroscopes and a star tracker, decades before the computing and navigation technology existed to make it work.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/tercom-dsmac-cruise-missile-navigation-gps-denied\/\">TERCOM and DSMAC: How a Cruise Missile Finds Its Target Without GPS<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/agm-190a-havoc-spear-afsoc-ac-130j-combat-africa-2026\/\">AGM-190A Havoc Spear: AFSOC Fires Its New Cruise Missile<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/britains-v-bombers-three-aircraft-one-nuclear-mission\/\">Britain&rsquo;s V-Bombers: Three Aircraft, One Nuclear Mission<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It ignored its own self-destruct, outran the fighters sent after it, and vanished over Brazil. Then it served as an American nuclear weapon for under four months.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":22994909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22995263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SM-62 Snark: The Missile Lost in the Amazon | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"America\u2019s first nuclear cruise missile ignored its own self-destruct and vanished over Brazil in 1956. 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