Typhon was a missile system developed by the United States Navy in the late 1950s, intended to serve as an integrated air-defense system for Navy fleets. Consisting of the SAM-N-8 Typhon LR, later designated RIM-50A, and the SAM-N-9 Typhon MR, later RIM-55A, paired with the AN/SPG-59 radar system, the cost of the Typhon system led to it being cancelled in favor of the Standard Missile program.

USS Norton Sound (AV-11/AVM-1) was originally built as a Currituck-class seaplane tender by Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, San Pedro, California. She was named for Norton Sound, a large inlet in West Alaska, between the Seward Peninsula and the mouths of the Yukon, north-east of the Bering Sea.