BLACKJACK

The Giant Killer

his day, Jack was apparently an effective
one-man weapon system with rather startling
combat capabilit ies over which some local giants
lost their heads-figuratively a nd liter ally. It is
quite evident t hat the st ory-teller hit upon the
underlying reasons for J ack's prowess when he
described the specialized equipment t hat gave
J ack his super ior strength. Such military characterist ics are timeless a nd still applicable some 14
centuries la t er. In t he great evolution of weapons
since t he knigh t wit h his horse and la nce (and,
of course, J ack wit h his unique apparel) the necessity for an effective weapon, for mobility, for
a bility to escape det ection and destruction, a nd
for suit able tactical doctrine are still incorporat ed
in t he militar y needs that define our latest and
most potent combat weapon systems.

The CO of the 2d Bn., 44th Arti llery (center), briefs officers on fire
mission during training at Fort Sill.
Officer i n paint ed helmet is Artillery
School " umpi re".

Bat tery commander uses recon

hel icopter to select firing sit e,
while battery executi ve officer moves
fire unit to a designated forward assembly area.

Missile carrier vehicle, with main

miss ile body mounted on erectorlauncher, and vehicle carryi ng fire
control equi pmen t and power supply
move in to posit ion.

The comma veh ic le moves into

position. Its i nflatable antenna is
stored in its roof. Comma equ ipment
provides jam-proof ed voice and t eletype communications.
18

The most recent of these to be issued t o t he

t r oops is P ershing : t he field a rmy commander's
longest-range nuclear punch. Obviously named
for one of our most illustrious soldiers, General
of the Armies J oh n J . (Blackjack) P ershing, t his
guided missile weapon system pr omises to be a
real giant -killer on the modern nuclear battlefield.
What can P ershing do for t he field army t hat
overshadows all ot her organic weapons? How
does it wor k and, more impor tant , how is it employed in such a vital role ? The answer s p rovide
a revealing insigh t into the latest concepts of
U. S. g round weapons and tactics as well as emphasize the dramatic increase in t he depth and
sweep of nuclear penetration into enemy combat
and logistical zones by Ar my-con trolled weapons.
During a recent field exer cise at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the Command ing General, F ourth Army,
was briefed on the capabilities of P ershing by the
2d Missile Battalion, 44th Artillery-the first Pershing batt alion t o be organized. As the General
sat in the battalion operations center , the firing
elements of Battery A, on t r acked and wheeled
vehicles, were speeding toward a . nearby firing
position to conduct a t act ical countdown. P ar t

ARMY

M o y 1963

Th is is the warhead carrier in the

assembly area. It car ries the nuclea r warhead and is equi pped with
davits needed to mate warhead to ma in
missi le body.

A number of simult aneous operations are carried out by crew preparing missi le for fi ring. Warhead and
missi le vehicl es move into mati ng positi on.

of the briefing went something like this.

"Sir, the area under consideration for this exercise is the five-state complex shown on the map
(Figure 1) which includes Kansas, Oklahoma,
Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. Aggressor has
launched an attack from the south and now controls 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 generally along the eastern and
northern sides of the Texas Panhandle. The
Army's mission is to launch a counterattack and
seize Amarillo, Texas. In support of the counterattack, 2d Missile Battalion, 44th Artillery, will
provide nuclear fires to neutralize Aggressor
forces in the vicinity of Lubbock, Texas.
"The battalion h eadquarters is at Wichita
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 operations center is located at Fort Sill. The unit that
will fire the assigned mission is Battery A , located at Lawton, Oklahoma, two hundred miles
from the target at Lubbock. The firing batteries

are positioned so that at least 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 around all points of the compass.
As an example of this significant range capability,
the battery at Lawton can reach west to Roswell, New Mexico; north to Kansas City; east
to Little Rock, Arkansas; and south to the Mexican border !"
Undoubtedly, this was as much a revelation to
the army commander as it was to the S3 section
people who plotted it. Imagine superimposing this
range capability on a map of Europe with a Pershing battery sited in U. S. forces' current positions in West Germany. The maximum range fan
would reach far into potential target areas. This
great target coverage is the most startling characteristic of Pershing and it injects a new dimen sion into the ability of the field army or army
group to influence t he tactical situation to an
extent never before realized with howitzers, guns,
or even the Redstone guided missile (which Pershing is scheduled to replace).
Almost as important as its r ange capability

Power supply and fire control

equi pment are carried on this
vehicle. Larger shelter contains t est
equi pment and computer. Power supply
is AC or DC.

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 practice.

Launch rig is levelled for firing

while crew makes final adjustments
before missile is raised. Extra personnel
are School "umpires" checking operat ions.

All preliminaries are comp let ed

and missile is partially erected.
Azimuths are laid whi le the mi ssile is
still in the horizontal position on the
carrier.

Umbilica l mast holds missile

erect for firing. Crew makes
quick last-minute checks before evacuating the area in antici pation of the
blastoff.

In t his 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.

10

11

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May 1 963

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A new missi le demands cla ssroom work in command and

staff of operating units. The author of this article and
CO of the 2d Battal ion, 44th Artil lery, Lt. Col. Patrick W.
Powers, is in the front row right of this group of officers.

-:

BLACKJACK
The Giant Killer
is Pershing's mobility on its tracked vehicles:
stripped-down versions of the armored personnel
carrier (M113). This combination of tracked and
wheeled mobility affords a m uch faster reaction
time than any other heavy missile system. The
reaction time is a lso shortened by using solid
propellant rocket engines and an a lmost completely automatic countdown system. To tie the
far-ranging batteries together, Pershing uses a
newly designed and h ighly reliable tropospheric
scatter radio system for transmitting the fire missions received from the field army tactical operations center (FATOC).
But perhaps we're getting ahead of our twentieth centu ry story about a giant-killer, so let's
look closer at some of the details.

The Pershing missile and warhead are issued

to service battery by an army special amun ition
supply point and carried by it to the firing battery in four tactical shipping containers loaded on
five-ton trucks. These containers are so constructed that a complete checkout of missile a nd
warhead can be done while they are still in the
containers. This allows us to isolate a defective
major section readily-a considerable improvement over first-generation missile systems. The
four containers carry first-stage rocket motor,
second-stage r ocket motor, guidance and contr ol
section, and warhead. Rocket motors are of a
solid propellant design. The guidance and control
section houses the inertial guidance components
to include electronic computers, gyroscopes, accellerometers, stable platform for mounting inertial devices, and certain fuzing signal devices.
Because of the self-contained inertial g uidance
system, after launch the missile is invulnerable
to any jamming or counter-measure techniques
known today. The warhead contains nuclear components, a nd its simplified design reduces field
handling and checkout. When the three missile
sections and the warhead are assembled, the t wostage Pershing missile is about 35 feet long and
weighs about 10,000 pounds.

Blockhouse on wheels
Five major pieces of Pershing firing equ ipment
are mount ed on four tracked vehicles. First is the
NEBRASKA
UTAH

COLORADO

Organizational innovations
The Pershing battalion h as four firing batteries,
a headquarters battery, and a service battery-a
total strength of more than 600. Here is a departure from the "single fire unit" concept for
missile battalions, using instead four separate fire
units, much like the former triangular division's
field artillery organization. Another innovation is
third-echelon missile support by engineer, ordnance and signal units organic to the battalion,
as well as aviation support by four utility helicopters. Each of the four firing batteries has a
firing platoon with a one-lau ncher firing section
and an ammunition section, plus necessary mess
and administrative personnel for independent and
sustained field operations up to 100 miles from
battalion h eadquarters.
20

AR M Y

Moy 1 963

"'

AMA RILLO

) - - - XX' XX
"')

MEXICO

"')
")

"I
"I

FIG URE 1. Persh ing fires on Lubbock from Lawton

SHOOT AND SCOOT: A REACH OF 400 NAUTICAL MILES IN ALL DIRECTIONS.

GROUND MOBILE ON TRACKED AND WHEELED VEHICLES; AIR TRANSPORTABLE.

erector-launcher which supports the missile du ring 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. It
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 meanwhile checks other pieces of ground support
equipment before the missile is launched. One of
the programmer-test station's important artillery
tasks is solving the gunnery problem (range, azimuth, time of flight) in a matter of seconds by
means of an electronic digital computer, a computation that would take three mathematicians
three weeks to do! This operation strips out any
fire direction requirement the battalion operations
center would normally impose, and, as a result,
puts more emphasis on fire control, target area
coverage, and allocation of warheads and logistical support. All necessary electrical and electronic
equipment required for this missile "blockhouse"
is housed in a shelter only seven by nine feet wide
and six feet high.
Mounted alongside on the same tracked vehicle

is the power station that produces the electrical

energy for missile ground support equipment du ring the countdown. A gas turbine engine is the
power source for operating the electrical generators as well as running an air compressor and
an air-conditioning unit . The last two components
provide high pressure and conditioned (heated or
cooled) air for the sensitive guidance components
in the missile. Both power station and programmer-test station can be easily dismounted from
their tracked vehicle and prepared for air movement by adding a set of wheels and axles.
The fourth major piece of firing equipment is
the tropospheric scatter radio (radio terminal set
AN/ TRC-80). This uses microwa ve frequencies
and tropospheric scatter propagation for reliable
(99.9 per cent) communications out to at lea.st
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 which
transmits and receives energy beams in a direct
line-of-sight operation.
The AN/ TRC-80 radio operates within the troposphere (which extends up to about 30,000 f eet)
by aiming narrow beams of energy at low angles
to the horizon from two distant sets of equipment

211d. SU.Ct CUTOfF

TEXAS

OKLAHOMA

FIGURE 2. Th e t ropospheric scatter ra dio system

FIGURE 3. Trajectory of the missile (looking south)

Ma y 1 963

ARMY

21

Sergeant Major Wa lter C. Hulsey, Sergean t Major of the 2d

Battalion, 44th Artil lery, at the control panel of the Pershing
system. Every key member of the battal ion is t rained in
the operations of the Pershing system.

BLACKJACK
The Giant Killer
(Figure 2). At the point wh ere the two beams
intersect, an extremely small portion of t he
energy from one set is scattered down through
the atmosphere to the receiver of the other. The
portion r eceived amounts to only one millionth
of that transmitted, emphasizing the sensitivity
of t he receivers use. We h ave found that it is
indeed reliable, whether voice or t eletype communication is used in one of its 333 operating
channels. Use of the tropospheric scatter technique permits, then, rela tively long communication paths without r equiring high-power transmitter levels, a nd makes interception or jamming
virtually impossible.
The warhead is mounted on t h e last p iece of
equipment: a cradle for warhead storage and a
davit-a nd-sling assembly for raising and joining
warhead and missile. This equipment, mounted on
the fourth tracked veh icle, is not used until the
missile is ready for the countdown at t h e firing
position.

When the countdown is tactical

The portion of the field exercise at Fort Sill
that the Fourth Army commander witnessed was
the culmination of a sequence of operations by
the P ershing battalion from being issued t h e missile sections and warhead, through missile assembly, down to simulated firing. Before the General
22

ARMY

May 1963

could observe Battery A moving its tracked and

wheeled vehicles into the firing position, the
ammunition platoon of service batter y had picked
up the t hree missile t actical shipping containers
and the one warhead con tainer from the special
a mmunition supply point and transported them
to Battery A's assembly area.
Here the firing battery crew opened the containers and, by means of a five-ton wrecker, lifted
the three missile sections and placed them on the
erector-launcher, where t hey were clamped t ogether with splice bands and secured to t he erector boom. The warhead was removed from its
container and placed in the cradle aboard the
tracked carrier vehicle. During t his missile assembly a fire mission was received from battalion
headquarters in Wichita Falls via tropospheric
scatter radio communications. The fire mission
h ad been received by battalion headquarters from
the FATOC with the necessary data, including
coordinates and alt itude of target, time-on-target,
type of war head, and height of burst.
The firing batter y commander was now ready
to move his firing elements from the assembly
position to the firing position previously ch osen
and surveyed for just such a mission. As the arm y
commander wa tches, the battery convoy, spearheaded by the our tracked vehicles, hustles into
view and moves into a small clearing near the
edge of a patch of woods. The erector-launch er
with its Pershing missile posit ions itself over the
firing stake and crewmen immediately connect a
bundle of cables and the programmer t est station
which have been placed alongside. The warhead
vehicle moves to the front of the missile and backs
in so that t he warhead can be lifted from its
cradle by the davit -and-sling assembly and joined
to t he missile. The AN / TRC-80 r adio is em placed
nearby at the edge of the woods, and its saucershaped eight-foot inflatable ant enna is raised and
oriented to the azimuth of the set at Wichita
F alls. Radio contact is made so t hat th e progress
of the countdown can be relayed to t he F ATOC
or any change in the fire mission can be complied
with as soon as possible.
Now the operator in the programmer-test station beg ins the automatic pre-launch phasing.
This consists of solving the gunnery problem for
missile presets by means of th e digital electronic
computer, a simulated flight t est of the missile
to ch eck how it will behave on trajectory, and
then actua lly setting the trajectory presets into
the guidance equipment on board the missile. The

BUILT BY MARTIN-ORLANDO. COMMAND AND CONTROL SYSTEM UTILIZES

TROPOSPHERIC SCATTER RADIO AND ELECTRONIC COMPUTER.

heading of the stable platform (or stable table)

in the guidance section is checked and subsequently turned to the firing azimuth. This device
is the heart of the guidance system. It is the reference by which deviations from the desired trajectory are measured so that corrections can be
made to get the missile back on a trajectory that
will hit the target. After the stable table has been
oriented, the missile is raised to a vertical firing
position and rotated to the firing azimuth.
All missile and ground equipment systems continue to be monitored and checked for possible
last-minute malfunctions by the complex networks in the programmer test station. If all components indicate a ready condition, firing control
is transferred t o a remote firing box in a foxhole
some 500 feet away.
When the directed time-on-target (minus ignition delay and time-of-flight) is reached, the
firing buttons are pressed and the first-stage
rocket motor will ignite-if this were a live firing.
Since Fort Sill is not an approved site for launching Pershing, the trajectory to the simulated target has to be described as it would occur during
a real firing ( Figure 3) .

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 communication links to the ground firing site. When
the first stage motor burns out, it breaks away
from the missile's main body; then the secondstage 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 secondstage motor and guidance and control 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 continues down the other side toward its destination.
As it re-enters the atmosphere near Lubbock,
heat-protective ablative coating melts away and
the warhead's firing mechanism detonates the
nuclear components at the height of burst desired
over the target. The army commander has just
sent his biggest, longest-range punch into Aggressor territory to support his counterattack

In recent environmental tests at Fort Wa inwright, Alaska,

the Pershing missile system proved itself under frigid con-

ditions. The 44th Artil lery has made test firings at Cape
Canaveral, and many more will be fired at White Sands .

j'
Moy l 963

AR MY

23

aimed at regaining control of the Texas Panhandle!

-Tactical employmentIf General Pershing were alive and in command

of U.S. troops in Europe today, he might be requoted as saying, "Send me soldiers who can shoot
and scoot!" This is precisely what the missile system that bears his name was designed to do; and
the proposed tactical employment stresses this
capability. The tactics and logistics of the Pershing battalion will be more firmly established
this year after a rigorous service test by the
Artillery 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 support techniques that we know and apply today.

launchers whenever possible and be able to shoot

from any assembly position or firing position previously chosen and surveyed. Because of the impressive range capabilities, the selection of firing
positions will probably not be difficult in the broad
field army area although firing batteries will undoubtedly be unwelcome neighbors since they
are prime targets for enemy weapons and guerrilla type attacks. 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 control these powerful weapons and to sound tactical
doctrine; the battalion's cap of knowledge are its
tropospheric scatter radio and the electronic comput~r that converts initial firing data into the.
essential information which commands the missile
to follow the proper trajectory to the target. Since
Move, shoot, communicate
the batteries will be well dispersed, organic FM
An artillery weapon system worth its salt must
radios and wire will provide "local" communicameet the combat requirements of move-shoottions while the army area communications system
communicate as well as the modern greater emwill back up the tropospheric scatter radio sets.
phasis on logistical support. These might ( with a
That is why that latter radio link is so vital to
stretch of the imagination) be likened to Jack
battalion operations: it affords positive, dependthe Giant Killer's battlefield capabilities that gave
able communications over long distance.
him such distinct advantages over the big men
To keep such extensive missile and conventional
of his day. For instance, his shoes of swiftness
equipment functioning, proper logistical support
and invisible cloak are really the counterparts of
for these far-ranging operations is an absolute
our mobility and tactical methods that avoid denecessity. Unfortunately, this is much more comtection and achieve dispersion of individual fire
plex task than that which faced Jack the Giant
units. This has been developed for Pershing by
Killer, that ancient one-man weapon system who
organizing the firing batteries as relatively small
lived off the land and subsisted on his tall enemies'
fire units, each able to sustain itself for a period
well-stocked larders. Second- and third-echelon
engineer, ordnance and signal teams are organic
of time out to a maximum distance of 100 miles
from battalion headquarters.
to this artillery battalion for the first time in
All four firing batteries can be placed at ran- recent history. They are able to field maintenance
contact teams that can assist the batterie~ =- - dom throughout the field army area, headquarters
battery close to the army tactical operations centheir firing operations. Supply and main1 nance
ter, service battery disposed so as to support all
become logistics for such a unit ( the
y's larelements of the battalion but still close to a special
gest field artillery missile battalion) , and manageammunition supply point or other supply points ment of such support is a real task for the batand depots. Organic helicopters and tracked and
talion staff's S4 and ordnance guided missile
officer.
wheeled vehicles provide the means for insuring
This story of a modern giant-killer on the numobility for such extensive, small-unit support
clear battelfield is no fable, but it does have a
as well as for exercising command and control.
moral: the mobile, long-range guided missile is
Firing batteries may normally remain concealed
by day and move rapidly to firing positions by
the most effective solution to the field army commander's need to influence the tactical action in
night. This same inherent mobility will allow
modern, nuclear combat. The Pershing guided
them to evacuate a position without delay after
missile system, deployed in battalion strength,
a fire mission, so that enemy counterbattery fires
is designed to accomplish this mission; the first
will be ineffective..
battalion to be organized is now in the final phases
The sword of sharpness can be compared to the
of its troop training. No new weapon system is
shooting capability of the Pershing battalion with
without its initial faults, but Pershing's first field
its rapid countdown, 360-degree range fan from
trials with a troop unit indicate a real potential
100 to 400 nautical miles, and its lethal nuclear
for the commander, "the better to perform the
warhead. We visualize that the firing batteries
great exploits that might fall his way."
will have a missile mounted on their erector24

ARMY

May 1963