The Air Force originally planned for a total of 52 sites covering most of the major cities and industrial regions in the US.

The United States Army was deploying their own systems at the same time, and the two services fought constantly both in political circles and in the press.

Development dragged on, and by the time it was ready for deployment in the late 1950s, the nuclear threat had moved from manned bombers to the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

[9] As early as 1944 the United States Army started exploring anti-aircraft missiles, examining a variety of concepts.

[11] Formally organized in 1946 under USAAF project MX-606, by 1950 Boeing had launched more than 100 test rockets in various configurations, all under the designator XSAM-A-1 GAPA.

When the Army released its first official information on Ajax to the press, the Air Force responded by leaking information on BOMARC to Aviation Week,[13] and continued to denigrate Nike in the press over the next few years, in one case showing a graphic of Washington being destroyed by nuclear bombs that Ajax failed to stop.

By this time, Ajax was widely deployed around the United States and some overseas locations, and the Army was beginning to develop its much more powerful successor, Nike Hercules.

A new round of fighting in the press broke out, capped by an article in The New York Times entitled "Air Force Calls Army Nike Unfit To Guard Nation".

[16] In October 1957, the first YIM-99A production-representative prototype flew with full guidance, and succeeded to pass the target within destructive range.

The maximum range of the IM-99A was 250 mi (400 km), and it was fitted with either a conventional high-explosive or a 10 kiloton W-40 nuclear fission warhead.

[12] The Bomarc relied on the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), an automated control system used by NORAD for detecting, tracking and intercepting enemy bomber aircraft.

It took two minutes to fuel before launch, which could be a long time in high-speed intercepts, and its hypergolic propellants (hydrazine and nitric acid) were very dangerous to handle, leading to several serious accidents.

The first IM-99B was launched in May 1959, but problems with the new propulsion system delayed the first fully successful flight until July 1960, when a supersonic MQM-15A Regulus II drone was intercepted.

Because the new booster required less space in the missile, more ramjet fuel could be carried, thus increasing the range to 430 mi (700 km).

The terminal homing system was also improved, using the world's first pulse Doppler search radar, the Westinghouse AN/DPN-53.

The training program, under the 4751st Air Defense Wing used technicians acting as instructors and was established for a four-month duration.

In September 1959 the squadron assembled at their permanent station, the Bomarc site near McGuire AFB, and trained for operational readiness.

While several of the squadrons replicated earlier fighter interceptor unit numbers, they were all new organizations with no previous historical counterpart.

[12] Within a year of operations, a Bomarc A with a nuclear warhead caught fire at McGuire AFB on 7 June 1960 after its on-board helium tank exploded.

While the missile's explosives did not detonate, the heat melted the warhead and released plutonium, which the fire crews spread.

[21] In 1962, the US Air Force started using modified A-models as drones; following the October 1962 tri-service redesignation of aircraft and weapons systems they became CQM-10As.

Otherwise the air defense missile squadrons maintained alert while making regular trips to Santa Rosa Island for training and firing practice.

The remainder continued to be operational for several more years while the government started dismantling the air defense missile network.

[22] In the era of the intercontinental ballistic missiles the Bomarc, designed to intercept relatively slow manned bombers, had become a useless asset.

[12] Following the accident, the McGuire complex has never been sold or converted to other uses and remains in Air Force ownership, making it the most intact site of the eight in the US.

[27] He won the 1963 election, largely on the basis of this issue, and his new Liberal government proceeded to accept nuclear-armed Bomarcs, with the first being deployed on 31 December 1963.

[28] When the nuclear warheads were deployed, Pearson's wife, Maryon, resigned her honorary membership in the anti-nuclear weapons group, Voice of Women.

All the warheads were stored separately and under control of Detachment 1 of the USAF 425th Munitions Maintenance Squadron at Stewart Air Force Base.

During operational service, the Bomarcs were maintained on stand-by, on a 24-hour basis, but were never fired, although the squadron test-fired the missiles at Eglin AFB, Florida on annual winter retreats.

447 SAM Squadron operating out of RCAF Station La Macaza, Quebec, was activated on 15 September 1962 although warheads were not delivered until late 1963.