Which Navy Constellation was going to carry missiles for self-defense?

The United States Navy was one of the major military users of the Constellation. Its long-range radar aircraft began life as the PO-2W Warning Star, based on the L-1049 Super Constellation and powered by Wright R-3350-34 or R-3350-42 engines of 3,400 hp (2,536 kW) each; it was later redesignated WV-2. Building on that base, Lockheed planned a radar version very different from its predecessors: the XW2V-1, which received the factory designation L-084.

The XW2V-1 was set to change almost everything essential. Instead of piston engines, it would carry four Allison T56-A8 turboprops, and instead of the Super Constellation's wing it would use the Starliner's, the last and most refined evolution of the family. Flying an L-1649A Starliner, TWA flew from Los Angeles to London on September 29, 1957, in 18 hours and 32 minutes. The most striking novelty was the armament: the project envisioned missiles so the aircraft could defend itself against attackers. The result was so different from its predecessors that Lockheed gave it its own model number instead of making it just another L-1049 variant.

The XW2V-1 appears in variant lists as planned: it never reached production. The early-warning family carried on with Super Constellation derivatives, and the last version produced was the EC-121 Warning Star. The US Navy and Air Force kept those aircraft in service until 1978, nearly forty years after work began on the original L-049, and many of them are preserved in museums today.