blackjack the giant killer
TRANSCRIPT
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of the briefing went something like this.
Sir,
the area
under consideration
for
this exer-
cise
is the
five-state complex shown on
the map
(Figure 1)
which
includes Kansas, Oklahoma,
Texas,
New
Mexico and Colorado.
Aggr
ess
or has
launched
an attack
from
the south
and now con
trols
the
western half of Texas, all of New Mexico
and southern
portions of Colorado. The
Fourth
Army
zone includes
most of Oklahoma
with
the
front line trace
genera
lly along
the
easte rn and
northern
sides
of the Texas Panhandle. The
Army's mission is to l
aunch
a
count
era ttack and
seize Amarillo, Texas. In
support of
the counter-
attack,
2d
Missile
Battalion, 44th Artillery,
will
provide nuclear fires to
neutr
alize Aggressor
forces in
the
vicinity of Lubbock, Texas.
"The
battalion
headquarters is at
Wic
hita
Falls, Texas, and the four firing batteries and
service
battery are
deployed
throughout the
Fourth Army zone, as shown. For convenience
during
this
field exercise,
the
battalion
opera-
tions center
is
located at Fort Sill. Th e unit that
will fire the assigned mission is Battery A, lo
cated at Lawton , Oklahoma, two hun re miles
from
the
target at
Lubbo
ck. The firing batt
er
i
es
are
positioned so
that
at
l
east
one
covers
the
front-line trace
at the
minimum
range
of one
hundred nautical miles and
the
rest can attack
targets out to a maximum range of
four
hundred
nautical miles ar ound all points
of the
compass.
As an example of this sign
ifica
nt range capab
il ity,
the
battery at Lawton can reach west to Ros
well, New Mexico;
north
to
Kansas
City; east
to Littl
e
Ro
ck,
Arkansas;
and
south to
the
Mexi
can border "
Undoubtedly, this was
as much
a revelation to
the army commander as it was to the S3
section
people who plotted it. Im agine supe
rimposing
this
range capability on a map
of Europe
with a Per-
sh ing
battery sited
in U. S. forces' current posi
tions in West
Germany.
The maximum range fan
would reach far into potential
tar
get areas. This
great targ
et
coverage is
the
most startling char
acteristic of
Pershing
and it injects a new dimen
sion
into the
abili ty
of the
field
army or
army
gro
up
to
influence t
he
ta
ctica
l
situation to an
ex
tent
never before realized with howitzers, guns,
or
even
the
Redstone g
ui
ded missile (which Per-
shing is scheduled to replace).
Almo
st as
i
mportant as its
r
ange
capability
7
Power supply and fire control
equipment are carried
on
this
vehicle. Larger shelter contains test
equipment and computer. Powe r supply
is
AC
or DC
8
The mating
of
the warhead to the
missi le The
davit
on the wa rhead
carrier makes for a smooth quick job
by a crew trained through much prac
tice.
9
Launch rig
is
levelled
for
firing
while crew makes final adjustments
befo
re
missile is raised. Extra personnel
are School
umpires
checking opera
t ions.
1
All
preliminaries are complet
ed
and missile is partially erected.
Azimuths are laid whi le the missile is
still in the horizontal position
on
the
carrier.
Umb il i
ca
l mast holds missile
erect for firing. Crew makes
quick
last-minute checks before evacu
at ing the area in anticipation
of
the
blastoff.
12
In this picture the
umbilical
mast is shown ejected from the
missile. In actual firing the mast
is
ejected simultaneous with the ignition
of
the first stage motor.
May
1
963
ARMY 9
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BL CKJ CK
The Giant Killer
is Pershing's mobility
on
its tracked
vehicles:
stripped
-down versions
of
the
armored
personne
l
carrier (M113). This combination of tracked and
wheeled mobility affords a much
faster reaction
time
than any other heavy
missile system.
The
reaction time
is al
so shortened by using so
lid
propellant rocket engines and an almost com
pletely
automatic
countdown system. To
tie the
fa r
-
ranging batter
i
es
together, Pershing
uses
a
newly
d
es
igned
and
high ly
re
li
ab
le
tropospher
ic
scatter
radio
system
for transmitting
the
fire mis
sions received from
the
field
army tactical
opera
tions center
(FATOC).
But
p
erhaps we're getting ahead of
our
twenti
eth centu ry
story
about a giant-killer, so let's
look closer at some
of the
details.
Organizational innovations
The Pershin
g
battalion
h
as four
fir ing
batteri
es,
a hea
dquarters
battery, and a service bat tery-a
tota
l strength
of
more
than
600.
Her
e is a de
parture from the
single fire
unit
concept
for
missile battalions, using instead four sep
arate
fire
units, much like
the
former triangular division's
field
artillery organization
.
Another
innova
tion
is
third-echelon missile su
pport
by engineer, ord
nance and signal
units organic to the
battalion,
as
well
as
aviati
on s
upport by four utility
heli
copt
ers
.
Each of the four
firing batt
er
ies
has
a
firing platoon w
ith
a one-launcher firing section
and an ammunition
sec
tion,
plus n
ecessary mess
and a
dministr
ative personnel
for
independent and
su
stained
field
operations up to
100 mi les
from
battalion headqu
arters.
2 0
AR
M Y
oy
1963
A
new
missi le demands cla
ss
room work in command and
staff
of
operating units. T
he
author
of this art
icle and
CO of the 2d Battal ion, 44th Art il lery, Lt. Co l. Patrick W.
Powers, is in the front row rig
ht
of
this
group
of
officers.
The Pershin
g
missil
e
and warhead
are
issued
to service battery by an
army
special am un ition
supply point
and
carried
by i t to the
firing bat
tery
in
four tactical shipping containers
loaded on
five-ton trucks.
These
conta
i
ners are so
con
structed that a complete chec
kout of
missile and
warhead
can be done while
they are
still in
the
containers.
This
allows
us to
isolate a d
efect
i
ve
major section readily a considerable improve
ment over first-generation missile systems. The
four
containers
carry first-sta
ge
rocket
motor,
second-s
tage
r oc
ket
motor, g
uidan
ce
and
contr ol
section, and
warhead. Rocket motors
are
of a
solid propellant design. The guidance and control
section houses
the inertial gu
idance compon
ents
to
include el
ec t
ron ic computers, gyroscopes, ac
cellerometers, stable pl
atform for
mounting iner
tial devices, and certain
fuz
ing signal devices.
Beca
u
se of th
e self-contained
inertial
guidance
system,
after launch th
e missile is invulnerable
to any jamming or counter-measure techn iques
known today. The
warhead
contains nuclear com
ponents, and its simplified design reduces field
ha
nd
l
ing
and checkout.
When the three
missile
se
ctions
and
the warhead are
assembled,
the
t wo
stage
Persh
ing missile is
about
35
feet
long and
we
ighs
about 10,000 pounds.
Blockhouse on
wh
ee
ls
Five major pieces of
Persh
ing firing equi
pment
are
mount ed on four
tracked
vehicles. First
is the
UTAH
CO
LOR DO
MEXICO
NEBR SK
' )
M R
ILLO
XX XX
')
)
')
)
I
I
FIG
U
RE 1.
Persh ing fires
on
Lubbock from Lawton
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SHOOT
AND
SCOOT:
A REACH OF 400 NAUTICAL MILES IN ALL DIRECTION S.
GROUND
MOBILE ON
TRACKED AND WHEELED VEHICLE
S;
AIR TRANSPORTABLE
erector
-l
auncher
which supports the missile dur
ing assembly of sections
and warhead,
movement
to
firing position, erection
to
vertical,
and
firing.
The
erector-launcher
can be
dismounted
from
its
tracked vehicle
and
towed on its own wheels for
transport by helicopter
or
other
aircraft.
The second important piece is the
programmer
test station, a veritable blockhouse
on
wheels.
t
performs the au tomatic "go, no-
go checkout
of
missile and warhead, electrically inserts the firing
data
into
t he
missile guidance system,
tests
itself
to see if
it is
doing its job properly and mean
while checks other pieces of
ground
support
equipme
nt
before
the miss
ile is launched. One of
the
programmer-test
station's
impor
tant
artillery
tasks is solving
th
e gunnery
prob
l
em
(range, azi
muth, time
of flight) in a
matter
of seconds by
means of an electronic digital computer, a com
putation that would take three mathematicians
three weeks to do This operation strips out any
fire direction requ irement
the
battalion operations
center
would
norma
lly impose, and,
as
a
re s
ult,
puts
more emphasis
on
fi
re
control,
target area
coverage,
and
allocation of
warheads
and logi
sti
ca
l support. All n
ecessary
electrical and electronic
equipment
required for
this missile
b
lockhouse"
is housed in a shelter
only
seven by nine
feet
wide
a
nd
six
feet hi
gh.
Mounted alongside on the same
tr
acked vehicle
TEXAS
OKLAHOMA
FIGURE 2.
Th
e t ropospheric scatter ra dio system
is
th
e
power
station that produces the electrical
energy for missile gr ound support e
quipment
dur
ing
the countdown. A gas turbine engine is the
power source
for operating
the electrical
gener
ators
as well as running an air compressor and
an
air-conditioning
uni
t .
The
last two components
provide
hi
gh pressure and conditioned (heated or
cooled) air
for
the sensitive guidance components
in the missile. Both power
station
and program
mer-test
station
can be
easi
ly dismounted
from
th
eir
tracked
vehicle
and prepared for
air
move
ment by adding a set of wheels and axles.
The fourth major piece of firing
equipment
is
th
e tropospheric
scatter radio
(radio terminal set
AN
/ TRC-
80).
This uses microwave frequencies
and
tropospheric sca
er
propagation
for reliable
(99.9
per
cent) communications out to at l
ea.s
t
100 miles. The principle of
operation is
different
from a conventional amplitude modulated (AM)
radio which r eflects a beam
of
electro-magnetic
or radio energy off the ionosphere (above 30
miles in
space)
to a distant receiver on
the
ground
or from
a
frequency
modulated (FM)
radio
wh
i
ch
transmits
and
receives energy beams in a direct
line-of-sight operation.
The AN
/ TRC-80 radio
operates
within the
trop
osphere
(which extends up to
about 30,000 fee
t)
by aiming narrow beams of
energy
at low angles
to
the horizon from two
distant sets
of equipment
2
11d
SU Ct T•OfF
FIGURE 3 Tra jectory of
th
e missile looking south)
Ma
y 1
963 ARMY
2
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BL CKJ CK
The Giant
Killer
(Fig
ure
2). At
the
point
wh
ere the
two beams
i
ntersect,
an
e
xtrem
e
ly sma
ll
portion of
t he
energy
from
one set
is scattered
down through
the
atmosphere to the receiv
er of th
e
other.
The
portion rece
ived amounts
to only o
ne millionth
of that transmitted,
e
mphasizing
the
sensitiv
i
ty
of t he receivers use . We have found
that
it is
ind
ee
d reliable whether voice or teletype com
munication is used
in
one of its 333 operat
in
g
channels. Use of the tropospheric sca
t t
er tech
nique permits then,
re
la tively long communica
tio
n paths without re
quirin
g hig
h-power
trans
mitter levels and makes interception or jamming
virt
uall
y
imp
oss
ible.
The war
head
is mounted on the last piece of
equipment: a
crad
le for warhead storage and a
davit-and-sling assembly for
ra
is
in
g and joining
war
head and missile. This equipme
nt
mounted
on
th
e fourth tracked vehicle is not
used
until
the
missile is
re
ady for the countdown at t he firing
position.
hen the countdown is
tactical
The portion of
th
e eld exercise at Fort Sill
that
the Fourth Army comman
der
witnessed was
the
culminat
ion
of
a
seq
u
ence
of
operat
io
ns
by
the Pers hing battalion from
bein
g issued t he mis
sile sections a
nd
warhead, through missile assem
bly down to s
imulated
firing. Before the General
RMY May 963
Sergeant Major Wa l ter C.
Hu
ls
ey
Sergean t Ma jor
of
the 2d
Battalion 44th Ar
ti l
lery
at
the control panel of the Pershing
system. Every key member of the
batt
al i
on
is t rained in
the operations of the Pershing system.
could
observe
Battery
A
moving its tracked and
wheel
ed
veh
icl
es
into
the
firing position
th
e
ammunition platoon of service batter y had picked
up
the t
hr
ee missile t actical sh
ip
ping containers
and the one warhead con tainer from the
special
ammunition supply point and
transported
them
to Batte
ry
A s assembly area.
Here the ring battery crew opened
th
e con
tainers
and,
by means of a five-ton wrecker, lifted
the three missile sections and
placed
them on the
erector-launcher
where
t
he
y
were
clamped to
gether with splice bands and secured
to
t
he ere
c
tor boom. The warhead
was
re
mo
ved from its
cont
a
iner an
d
placed in
the
crad
le
aboard
the
tracked carrier
vehicle.
Durin
g t his missile assem
bly a fire
mission
was received
from
b
atta
lion
headquarters in
Wichita
Falls via
oposph
eric
scatter
radio communications
. The fire mi
ss
ion
h
ad been
recei
ved
by
battalion headquarters from
the FATOC with the
nece
ssary da
ta, inc
ludi
ng
coordinates and alt itude of target, time-on-target,
type of war head and
he
ig
ht
of burst.
Th
e firing batter y commander was now ready
to
move
his firing elements from the assembly
position to the firing position previously chosen
and
s
ur
veyed
for
just
s
uch
a mission.
As
the
ar
my
commander wa tches the battery convoy spear
headed by
the
our tracked vehicles hust les into
view and
moves
into a small cl
ea
ring near the
edge
of
a
pat
ch
of
woods. The
erector
-launch
er
with
it
s Pershing
mis
sile
pos
it ions i
tself
over
th
e
fir
in
g
sta
ke and crewmen
immediate
ly
connect
a
b
undl
e of cables and the programm
er
t
es
t
station
which
hav
e
bee
n pl
aced
alongside. The warhead
vehicle moves to the
fr
ont
of the
missile
and backs
in so that
t he warhead can be l
ifted fro
m
its
crad
le by t
he
davit -an
d-s
l
ing assemb
ly
and joined
to
t he
mi ss
ile.
Th
e
AN
TRC-80 r
ad
io
is
empl
aced
nearb
y at
the edge
of the woods and i
ts
saucer
shaped eight-foot inflatable antenna is
ra
ised and
oriented to the azimuth of the set at Wichita
F alls. Radio contact is made
so
t hat the progress
of the
countdow
n can
be
relayed to t he FATOC
or any change
in
the fire m
is
sion
ca
n be complied
with as soon as possible.
Now the operator in the programmer
-
test sta
tion
be
gins
the automat
ic
pre-launch phasi
ng.
This co
nsists of
solv
in
g the g
unnery prob
l
em for
missile presets by
means of
the
digital
electronic
computer
a
simu
l
ated
flight t
est of
the
missile
to
check how it will behave on
trajectory,
and
th
en actually
setting
th e trajectory presets into
the
guidance
equip
ment on board the mi
ssile. T
he
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BUILT BY MARTIN
ORLAND
O
CO
MMAND AND C
ONTROL
SYSTEM UT ILIZES
TROPOS
PHERIC
S
CATTER
RADIO
AND ELECTRONIC
C
OMP
UTER
heading
of the stable platform (or stable
table)
in t
he guidance
section
is
checked and subse
quently turned
to
the
firing
azimuth. This
device
is
the heart of the
guidance system.
t
is
the ref
erence by which deviations from the desired
tra
jectory are measur
ed
so
that corrections
can be
made
to
get the
missile
back
on a trajectory that
will hit
the targe
t.
Aft
er the
stab
le
table has
been
oriented,
the
missile is
raised
to a
vertical
firing
position and
rotated
to the firing azimuth.
All missile
and gro und equipment systems
con
tinue to be
monitored
and checked
for
possible
last-minute
malfunctions by
the complex ne
t
works
in
the programmer test station. f
all com
ponents indicate a ready condition, firing control
is
transferred to a remote firing box in a foxhole
some 500
feet away.
When the directed
time-on-target
(minus
igni
tion de
la
y
and
time-of-flight) is reached, the
firing buttons are
pressed
and
the first-sta
ge
rocket
motor will ignite-if this
were
a live firing.
Since
Fort
Sill is not an
approved
site
for
launch
ing Pershing,
the trajectory to the
simulated
tar
get
has to be described
as it wou
ld
occur during
a real firing (Figure 3) .
In recent env
ir
onmental tests
at
Fort Wa inwright Alaska
the Pershing missile system proved it
self
under
fr igid
con-
.
j
After
ignition,
the
missile
lifts rapidly
off
its
launcher and pitches or tilts toward the chosen
target at Lubbock. After lift-off, it
is
under its
own inertial
guidance control
and
has
no com
mun
ication links
to the ground
firing site.
When
the
first s
ta
ge motor
burns
out,
it
breaks
away
from
the
missile s main
body;
then
the
second
stage
motor ignites
and burns for
a variable time,
depending on range to
target
.
Rocket thrust ends
when
the proper
velocity
and position in
space
have
been
attained for the warhead to
continue
on an accurate ballistic trajectory to the
target.
Now
the
warhead separates from
the
second
stage motor and
guidance and
contro
l section. All
this
would occur,
of
course, many miles above
the Oklahoma countryside as the warhead climbs
to the peak
of
its 200-mile trajectory and con
tinues
down the other side toward
its
destination.
As it
re-enters the a
tmo
sphere
near
Lubbock,
heat-protective ablativ
e coating
melts away and
the warhead s
firing
mechanism
detonates
the
nuclear
components at
th
e height
of burst
desired
over the
target
. The army
commander has just
sent
his biggest, lon
gest-rang
e
punch into
Ag
gre
ssor territory
to s
upport his counterattack
ditions. The 44th rtil lery has made test firings at ape
Canaveral and many more will be fired at White Sands
Moy l
963
AR MY 3
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aimed
at
regaining control of
the
Texas Pan
handle
-Tactical employment-
If General Pershing were alive and
in
command
of U.S. troops in Europe today, he might be re
quoted as saying, "Send me soldiers who can shoot
and scoot " This is precisely what the missile sys
tem
that
bears his name was designed to do; and
the proposed tactical employment stresses this
capability. The tactics and logistics of the Per
shing battalion will be more firmly established
this year after a rigorous service test by the
Artil lery Board,
the testing unit
coming from the
2d Battalion, 44th Artillery. However, until the
results of the service
test
confirm current field
employment concepts, only general remarks can
highlight significant changes in missile fire sup
port techniques that we know and apply today.
Move, shoot,
communicate
An
artillery weapon system worth
its
salt must
meet
the
combat requirements of move-shoot
communicate as well as the modern greater em
phasis on logistical support. These might ( with a
stretch of the imagination) be likened to Jack
the Giant Killer's battlefield capabilities that gave
him
such distinct advantages over the big men
of his day.
For
instance, his shoes
of
swiftness
and invisible cloak are really the counterparts of
our mobility and tactical methods that avoid de
tection and achieve dispersion of individual fire
units. This
has
been developed for Pershing by
organizing
the
firing batteries
as
relatively small
fire units, each able to sustain itself for a period
of time out to a maximum distance of 100 miles
from battalion headquarters.
All four firing batteries can be placed at
ran
dom throughout the field army area,
headquarters
battery close to
the
army tactical operations cen
ter, service battery disposed so as to support all
elements of the battalion
but
stil l close to a special
ammunition supply point or other supply points·
and depots. Organic helicopters and tracked
and
wheeled vehicles provide the means
for
insuring
mobility for such extensive, small-unit support
as well as
for
exercising command and control.
Firing batteries may normally remain concealed
by day and move rapidly to firing positions by
night. This same inherent mobility will allow
them
to evacuate a position without delay after
a fire mission, so that enemy counterbattery fires
will be ineffective
The sword of sharpness can be compared to
the
shooting capability of the Pershing battalion with
its
rapid countdown, 360-degree range fan from
100 to 400 nautical miles, and
its
lethal nuclear
warhead. We visualize that the firing batteries
will have a missile mounted on their erector-
24 ARMY
May 963
launchers whenever possible and be able to shoot
from
any
assembly position
or
firing position pre
viously chosen and surveyed. Because of the im
pressive range capabilities,
the
selection
of
firing
positions will probably not be difficult in
the
broad
field army area although firing batteries will un
doubtedly be unwelcome neighbors since they
are prime
targets for
enemy weapons
and
guer
rilla type at tacks. Once in
its
firing position areas,
the battalion can attack single or multiple targets
simultaneously
with
four nuclear warheads.
Communications and
logistics
Communications are vital to command and con
trol these powerful weapons and to sound tactical
doctrine; the battalion's cap of knowledge are
its
tropospheric scatter radio and the electronic com
put~r
that
converts initial firing
data
into the.
essential information which commands the missile
to
follow
the
proper
trajectory
to the
target.
Since
the batteries
will be well dispersed, organic FM
radios
and
wire will provide "local" communica
tions while the army area communications system
·will
back up the tropospheric
scatter
radio sets.
That is why that latter radio link is so vital to
battalion operations:
it
affords positive, depend
able communications over long distance.
To keep such extensive missile and conventional
equipment functioning,
proper
logistical support
for these far-ranging operations is an absolute
necessity. Unfortunately, this is much more com
plex
task than
that
which faced
Jack the
Giant
Killer,
that
ancient one-man weapon system who
lived off the land and subsisted on his tall enemies'
well-stocked larders. Second- and third-echelon
engineer, ordnance and signal teams
are
organic
to this artillery battalion
for
the
first time in
· recent history. They are able
to
field maintenance
contact teams that can assist the batterie~
their firing operations. Supply and
main
nance
become logistics for such a unit (the y's lar-
gest field
artillery
missile bat talion) ,
and
manage-
ment of such support is a real
task for
the
bat-
talion staff's S4 and ordnance guided missile
officer.
This story of a modern giant-killer on
the
nu
clear battelfield
is
no fable,
but
it does have a
moral: the mobile, long-range guided missile is
the most effective solution to the field army com
mander's need
to
influence
the
tactical action in
modern, nuclear combat. The
Pershing
guided
missile system, deployed in battalion
strength,
is designed
to
accomplish this mission;
the
first
battalion
to
be organized is now in
the
final phases
of its troop training. No new weapon system
is
without
its
initial faults,
but
Pershing's first field
trials with a troop
unit
indicate a
real
potential
for the commander, the better to perform
the
great exploits that might fall his way."