newly developed Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) navigation system. Reportedly, the designation AGM-28C was reserved for this version of the Hound Dog if development had been continued. While a Hound Dog with TERCOM was never deployed, this technology, with much better electronics and digital computers, was later used in both the Air Force's Air Launched Cruise Missile and the Navy's Tomahawk. In 1972, the Bendix Corporation was awarded a contract to develop an anti-radiation missile passive radar seeker to guide the Hound Dog missile to antennas transmitting radar signals. A Hound Dog with this radar seeker was test-flown in 1973, but never mass-produced. Operational history On December 21, 1959, General Thomas S. Power, the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC), formally accepted the first production Hound Dog missile. Just two months later in February, SAC test-launched its first unarmed Hound Dog at Eglin Air Force Base. In July 1960, the Hound Dog reached initial operational capability with the first B-52 unit. The Hound Dog was used on airborne alert for the first time in January 1962. In 1962, SAC activated missile maintenance squadrons to provide maintenance for both the Hound Dog and the ADM-20 Quail decoy missile. Full operational capability was achieved in August 1963 when 29 B-52 bomber wings were operational with the Hound Dog. In 1960, SAC developed procedures so that the B-52 could use the Hound Dog's J52 engine for additional thrust while the missile was located on the bomber's two pylons. This helped heavily laden B-52s fly away from their airbases faster, before enemy nuclear weapons obliterated them. The Hound Dog could then be refueled from the B-52's wing fuel tanks. One Hound Dog missile crashed near the town of Samson, Alabama, when it failed to self-destruct after a test launch from Eglin Air Force Base. In 1962, a Hound Dog was accidentally dropped to the ground during an underwing systems check. In May 1962, operation "Silk Hat" was conducted at Eglin Air Force Base. During this exercise, a Hound Dog test launch was conducted before an audience of national and international dignitaries headed by President John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson. On September 22, 1966, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara recommended retiring all of the remaining Hound Dog missiles within a few years. The Hound Dogs would be retained pending the outcome of the Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM)