blackjack the giant killer

8/18/2019 Blackjack the Giant Killer

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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


5/9

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


6/9

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


7/9

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


8/9

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


9/9

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."

blackjack the giant killer

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