[4] The 'Tarzon' name was a portmanteau, combining Tallboy, range and azimuth only, describing the weapon and guidance system;[4][5] and was pronounced similarly to that of "Tarzan", the popular "ape-man" fictional character.

[1][3] Intended to be carried by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber,[N 1] the Tarzon bomb used the combination of AN/ARW-38 [Joint Army Navy, Piloted Aircraft, Radio, Automatic Flight or Remote Control][9] command link transmitter on the B-29 and an AN/URW-2 [Joint Army Navy, Utility, Radio, Automatic Flight or Remote Control] receiver on the Tarzon to provide manual command guidance of range and azimuth.

[10] Tarzon saw its first combat use in December 1950,[1] the ASM-A-1 replacing the Razon in operational service; the smaller weapon had been determined to be too small for effective use against bridges and other hardened targets.

[12] March 3, 1951, a new shipment of Tarzon bombs arrived in the Far East, allowing FEAF to resume raids, suspended since Jan. 17, with the large guided weapons.

[15] These combined with the weapon's poor reliability – only six of twenty-eight bombs dropped successfully destroyed their targets[15][N 3] – to result in the production order being canceled by the USAF; following this, the Tarzon program as a whole was terminated in August 1951.