in march 1953, the united states air force released general operational requirement (gor) 16 which called for a long range decoy missile to increase the effectiveness of strategic air command bombers by confusing and saturating an air defense system. multiple xsm-74 missiles would be ground-launched from strategic air command bases located in the united states. fifty percent of the deployed xsm-74 missiles would be launched within the first hour after an alert and the remaining missiles would be launched one hour later. the requirement called for 85 percent of the decoy missiles to arrive at the target area within . the xsm-74 was to fly at speed of at least 0.85 mach at an operating altitude of 50,000 ft (15,240 m) with a payload of 500 lb (227 kg). after flying , the xsm-74 would simulate the performance of the b-47 stratojet or b-52 stratofortress over the final of flight.