OCR Text |
Show Fall Pershing Missile Series Slated at Green River Base WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N. M., Aug. 9 Army officials have announced announc-ed that eight Pershing missiles missil-es will be launched from" Utah to New Mexico in the fall series of firings starting start-ing in September. The missiles will bo fired frum the Utah Launch Complex Com-plex of White Sands Missile Range at Green River. They will impact on the 4,000-square-mile range in southern south-ern New Mexico. The series will be completed complet-ed in late October. Four of the annual service practice rounds will be fired by units of the Federal Republic Re-public of Germany (West , Germany) Air Force. Firing i three rounds will be batter-J batter-J ics from the Europe-based i Seventh U.S. Army. The ' last round will be fired by a battery of the 3rd Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, from Ft. Sill, Okla. i While Sands officials said J the operational Pershing 1-A model ground support equipment equip-ment will be used for the 1 firings. The two-stage bal-' bal-' listic missiles will be of the j type designated Artillery Ordnance rounds. An advance party from Ft. j Sill, composed of members I of the 3rd Battalion, is sch-j sch-j eduled to arrive at Green River in late August. The Battalion's main body will travel in convoys to the Utah site early in September. About 400 strong, the 3rd Battalion operates the camp ; at Green River and provides , both technical and administrative adminis-trative support for the firing fir-ing units. Other participants include I U.S. Army Test and Evalu-j Evalu-j ation Command elements of WSMR, a field crew from the Pershing Project Manager's Office of the U.S. Army Missile Command at Red-i Red-i stone Arsenal, Ala., and a team of umpires from the U. S. Army Field Artillery Mis- sile Systems Evaluation Group of Ft. SiU. Representatives of the Martin Marietta Corp. of Orlando, Fla., prime contrac-, contrac-, tor for Pershing systems, will j be on hand. Pershings are produced by Martin Marietta under contracts con-tracts let by the Missile Command. They have been operational in the continental continen-tal U.S. since 1963 and were deployed with U.S. Army and North Atlantic Treaty Or-ganization Or-ganization defense forces in Europe in 1964. Technical test director ff' the series will be James F. Conner of Huntsville, ' Ala., representing the Pershing Project Manager's Office. With the program for 10 years, Conner has never missed mis-sed a Pershing series. Since the off-range firing program began in August 1963, a total of 184 Pershing rounds have been fired to impact on White Sand3 Mis- sile Range Earlier, 56 rounds were fired at Cape Canaveral (now Cape Kennedy) to impact im-pact in the Atlantic Ocean. Twenty rounds were fired in the spring series this year conducted in April, May and June from the Utah Launch Complex at Green River. Most powerful . of the Army's .operational missiles, Pershing is 35 feet long, 40 inches in diameter and weighs 10,600 pounds at launch. It has a range up To 400 miles and is capable of delivering a ntclear warhead. The Pershing uses solid propellant and travels at supersonic speed. It has an interial guidance system and operates in . any weather conditions. |