US ''Ares'' - Class ICBM

By Crusader1307

The short lived ''Ares'' Missile Project was developed by The US Air Force in 1963. Taken from The Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System, ''Ares'' promised to be a cheaply produced alternative to the more expensive Titan. ''Ares'' was the last of the liquid-fuel Rocket Systems to be developed. With cheaper, the on-going issue was fueling and storage. As a liquid-fueled weapon, it;s fuel could not be stored inside the Rocket (too unstable after a period of inactivity). Refueling time was roughly 30-minutes before a Missile could be launched. This was seen as too long a period if The Missile was needed in a ''first strike'' or retaliatory plan.

A planned overall mass of 250,000-pounds,  the weaponized ''Ares'' would have been 100-feet in length with an overall diameter of 10-feet.It would have supported a 9-Megaton Warhead.Deployment would have been within The Continental United States. The majority of ''Ares'' produced would be discontinued in favor of solid-fuel systems such as The ''Minuteman'', but the initial design would assist NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in their early Space Exploration Test Flight Programs.