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You're mentioning of the Firebees reminded me of SMARTROC. The USN ASROCs refitted for land attack by replacing the standard ASW torpedo with a 500lb bomb. The last version before it was cancelled had a range of about 10 miles and was considered very accurate. It was intended to augment the 5"/38s of the old Gearings conducting gunfire support missions and give them more of a punch. You could call it a precursor to modern land attack missiles. Wonder how they would have fared had they made it to Vietnam. A longer range air launched version could have been a success but wasn't Skipper and/or Bullpup basically a rocket powered 500 pounder? Can't remember.

[QUOTE="CliffyB, post: 174072, member: 7565"] You're mentioning of the Firebees reminded me of SMARTROC. The USN ASROCs refitted for land attack by replacing the standard ASW torpedo with a 500lb bomb. The last version before it was cancelled had a range of about 10 miles and was considered very accurate. It was intended to augment the 5"/38s of the old [i]Gearings[/i] conducting gunfire support missions and give them more of a punch. You could call it a precursor to modern land attack missiles. Wonder how they would have fared had they made it to Vietnam. A longer range air launched version could have been a success but wasn't Skipper and/or Bullpup basically a rocket powered 500 pounder? Can't remember. [/QUOTE]

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