Original vintage 1963 Sperry Rand Cold War advertisement for its C-band beacon test sets for U.S. intercontinental-ballistic missile testing, "Missile borne beacons scheduled to ride the big birds in the Titan III and Polaris evaluation programs are being thoroughly checked out by Sperry C-band beacon test sets."
 
Dimensions: Approx. 8 inches wide by 11 inches high.  Note light damage to the left of the advert, near the bottom (advert is discounted accordingly).
 
The UGM-27 Polaris SLBM
The Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), and as the United States Navy's (USN) first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980.
 
In the mid-1950s, the USN was involved in the PGM-17 Jupiter liquid-fueled and nuclear-cable medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) project with the U.S. Army and had influenced the design by making it squat so it would fit in submarines.  However, the USN had concerns regarding the use of liquid fuel missiles on board ships, and consideration was given to a solid fuel version, the Jupiter S.
 
In 1956, during an anti-submarine study known as Project Nobska, nuclear weapons legend known as the “father of the hydrogen nuclear bomb,” Edward Teller suggested small hydrogen bomb warheads were possible.  A U.S, crash program to develop a missile suitable for carrying such warheads began as Polaris, which launched its first shot less than four years later, in February 1960.
 
As the Polaris missile was fired underwater from a moving platform, it was essentially invulnerable to counterattack.  This led the USN to suggest, in circa 1959, the USN be given the entire nuclear deterrent role, which led to new infighting between the USN and U.S. Air Force (USAF).  The latter responding by developing the counterforce concept that argued for the strategic bomber and ICBM as key elements in the U.S. policy of “flexible response.”  
 
Polaris formed the backbone of the USN's nuclear force aboard a number of custom-designed submarines.  In 1963, the Polaris Sales Agreement led to the United Kingdom Royal Navy taking over the UK's nuclear role – related, tests were carried out by the Italian Navy, but did not lead to its use by the Italians.
 
The Polaris missile was gradually replaced on 31 of the 41 original SSBNs in the U.S. Navy by the multiple independent reentry vehicle (MIRV)-capable Poseidon missile beginning in 1972.  During the 1980s, these missiles were replaced on 12 of these submarines by the Trident I missile.  The 10 George Washington- and Ethan Allen-class SSBNs (Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear, aka a nuclear-armed USN “boomer” sub) retained Polaris A-3 until 1980 because their missile tubes were not large enough to accommodate Poseidon.
 
With USS Ohio beginning sea trials in 1980, these submarines were disarmed and redesignated as attack submarines to avoid exceeding the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty II (SALT II) strategic arms treaty limits.
 
The Titan ICBM
The Titan was a family of United States expendable missiles used between 1959 and 2005.  The Titan I and Titan II missiles were part of the US Air Force's (USAF) ICBM fleet until 1987, and the space launch vehicle Titan versions contributed the majority of the 368 Titan launches, including all the Project Gemini crewed flights of the mid-1960s.  Titan vehicles were also used to lift U.S. military payloads – as well as civilian agency reconnaissance satellites – and to send interplanetary scientific probes throughout the Solar System.
 
The HGM-25A Titan I, built by the Martin Company (in this advert), was the first version of the Titan family of missiles.  It began as a backup ICBM project in case the SM-65 Atlas was delayed, and featured a two-stage rocket operational from early 1962 to mid-1965 whose LR-87 booster engine was powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen.  
 
The Titan II missile had a range of approximately 9,300 miles (15,000 km), rendering it a powerful weapon capable of reaching almost any target in the world. The Titan II was the last liquid-fueled ICBM built by the United States and was in service from 1963 to 1987.
 
Unlike the decommissioned Thor, Atlas, and Titan II missiles, the Titan I inventory was scrapped and never reused for space launches or re-entry vehicle tests, as all support infrastructure for the missile had been converted to the Titan II/III family by 1965.
 
Most of the Titan rockets were the Titan II ICBM and their civilian derivatives for NASA.  The most famous use of the civilian Titan II was in the NASA Gemini program of crewed space capsules in the mid-1960s.  Twelve Titan II GLVs were used to launch two U.S. uncrewed Gemini test launches and ten crewed capsules with two-person crews – all launches were successful.
 
There were several accidents in Titan II silos resulting in loss of life and/or serious injuries – in August 1965, 53 construction workers were killed in fire in a missile silo northwest of Searcy, Arkansas; the fire started when hydraulic fluid used in the Titan II was ignited by a welding torch.  The liquid fuel missiles were prone to developing leaks of their toxic propellants.  
 
Subsequently, at a silo outside Rock, Kansas, an oxidizer transfer line ruptured on August 24, 1978, with an ensuing orange vapor cloud forced 200 rural residents to evacuate the area. A staff sergeant of the maintenance crew was killed while attempting a rescue and a total of twenty were hospitalized. 
 
Separately, in September 1980, at a Titan II silo 374-7 near Damascus, Arkansas, a technician dropped an 8 lb socket 70 ft, which bounced off a thrust mount, and broke the skin of the missile's first stage.  When the leak was detected shortly after, the silo was flooded with water and civilian authorities were advised to evacuate the area.  While the issue was being fixed, leaking rocket fuel ignited and blew the 8,000 lb nuclear warhead out of the silo.  It landed harmlessly several hundred feet away.  One fatality and 21 were injured in the end, all from the emergency response team from Little Rock AFB.  The explosion blew the 740-ton launch tube cover 200 ft (60 m) into the air and left a crater 250 feet in diameter.
 
The 54 Titan IIs in Arizona, Arkansas, and Kansas were replaced by 50 MX "Peacekeeper" solid-fuel missiles in the mid-1980s, and the last Titan II silo was deactivated in May 1987. Altogether, 54 Titan IIs had been fielded along with a thousand Minuteman missiles from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s.  Today, a number of Titan I and Titan II missiles can be found as museum displays across the U. S.