SAM-A-19 Plato

By modern standards, it would be considered a theatre ballistic missile (TBM) defense system (TBMD), providing protection to the Army field units from Warsaw Bloc short and medium-range weapons.

Plato was canceled in February 1959 in favor of modifications to the Hawk and Hercules anti-aircraft missiles to provide some level of protection while a much more capable system, FABMDS, was developed.

In early February, the Joint Committee on New Weapons and Equipment, the "Stillwell Board" run by Joseph Stilwell, restated the antimissile requirement in its report on a Proposed National Program for Guided Missiles.

By 1 April Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson had signed off on the program, and at the end of May the Stilwell Board published a requirement for an antimissile with a 100,000 yard range.

[2] In March 1946 the Air Forces started Project Thumper (also known as MX-795) to consider the problem of defending against ballistic missiles like the V-2, using the "collision intercept" method.

[1] The Army Air Force and Ordnance Department had earlier split up programs based on whether they were "airplane like" or "rocket like", but Thumper and Wizard broke this rule and were developed under the AAF.

The Air Force cancelled Thumper in 1949, citing the overlap with the more advanced Wizard, and re-directed remaining funds to their GAPA anti-aircraft project.

Reports early that year demonstrated a rapid buildup of short- and medium-range missiles and rockets in the Warsaw Pact forces.

[9] It was replaced by the Army Air Defense for the 1970s (AADS-70) program, which became Surface-to-Air Missile-Development (SAM-D) and eventually produced the MIM-104 Patriot missile system.