The Bullpup was the first mass-produced air to ground command guided missile. The U.S. military developed the missile as a result of experiences in the Korean War where aircraft had great difficulty in destroying targets which required precise aiming and were often heavily defended, such as bridges. The "Bullpup" was first deployed by the United States Navy in 1959 as the ASM-N-7. Later, it was redesignated the AGM-12B in 1962.

The Bullpup had a Manual Command Line Of Sight guidance system with roll-stabilization. In flight the pilot or weapons operator tracked the Bullpup by watching a flare on the back of the missile and used a control joystick to steer it toward the target using radio signals.

The example on display is a gift from the Thiokol Chemical Corporation, later Morton Thiokol, the maker of the solid fuel rocket engine used by the missile.