F-89J "Scorpion"
None the F-89J was a modified F-89D. The modification, accomplished after production at Northrop's Palmdale plant in California, gave the aircraft a new armament-a change sufficiently important in this case to warrant a new designation. New features included; Hughes MG-12 fire control system; two Douglas-built, unguided, air-to-air MB -1 Genie rockets--subsequently redesignated AIR2As. The F-89J was the first nuclear-armed interceptor.
Initial deliveries of Genie-equipped F-89Ds began in November and December 1956. The aircraft were identified as F-89Js soon afterward. The aricraft entered operational service in January 1957, with ADC's 84th FIS at Hamilton AFB, thereby meeting the deadline established in March of 1955.
While the F-89Js were accounted for as F-89Ds, the production of which ended at the contractor's Hawthorne plant in March 1966, their modification did not end until 2 years later. This was still 2 weeks ahead of schedule. The new armament, and airframe modification for its installation, raised the price of the aircraft, but Northrop completed the modification with a cost underrun. The first modified F-89Ds cost $1,008,884.00 apiece, or $207,282.00 more than each original F-89D. Despite unchanged armament costs, the overall unit price of the modified F-89Ds was later cut by $20,000.00. The reduction lowered the aircraft unit price to that of the F-89H. Specifically, costs were: 988,884.00--airframe, $636,748; engines (installed), $105,697; electronics, $10,094; ordnance, $998; armament, $335,347.
Although several ANG units began to convert to the F-89J in July 1959, the aircraft remained much in evidence at the end of the year. Two hundred and seven. of a peak ADC inventory of 286 (30 June 1958) were on hand at that time. However, the increasing availability of F-lO1Bs and F-106As (ADC's subsequent atomic carriers) in 1960 marked the end of the F-89J as a most important member of the regular forces. But the aircraft's operational life was not over. Eight ANG squadrons flew F-89J aircraft that were to be equipped with nuclear Genies in mid-1961. In 1962, a ninth ANG squadron, the 124th at Des Moines, Iowa, received F-89Js. This squadron, together with the 1324, located at Dow AFB, still flew nuclear aimed F-89Js in 1968.
The F-89J achieved some milestones in aviatioin. Firing of the first air-to-air rocket (modified MB-1 Genie) with nuclear warhead. The rocket, launched from an ADC F-89J, was detonated at a point in space more than 15,000 feet above the northern portion of Yucca Flat, Nev. The warhead was of a weapon design by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. In 1964, 148th Fighter Group of the Minnesota Air National Guard became the first ANG unit to win the US Air Force Missile Safety Award. Equipped with F-89Js, armed with AIR-2A Genies, the 148th based at Williamson-Johnson Municipal Airport in Duluth, Minn., flew active air defense missions on a 24-hour-a-day alert basis with the Air Defense Command.
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