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Show !0 Pershing Missiles Scheduled or Firing from Green River Range ttlllTK SANHS MISSU.K NCK, . M., IVl). 1(! - ' ;o-ivun.i si'lu'tltiif is Ihmiii; aniuM for the spring series off r.uiv;e firings of lYrs:i-g lYrs:i-g missiles from ilreen Kiv S I'tah, to While &iiuis Mis. 'to KvUn;e, I'. S. Army of ials have amnnim'od. -The two-stage msilos wih "i fired in April. May ami me. Participating agencies ive btvn making plans for e series since late last fa11. Tluve rounds are scheduleil April, five in May and 12 . June. ..All of the firings will he : .pportixi by members of the d Battalion. 9th Field A;. lory, from Ft. Sill, Okla., -to also will fire the first yund in the series during the week of April lti. As the series continues, lfi rounds will ho fired by units of the Seventh V. S. Army, returning for annual service practice firings from stations in Kurope. Four rounds will be tired by elements of the Federal liopublio ol liermar.y Air Force. The series is scheduled for completion during the week ol June 23. The 3rd Battalion, which will he encamped with about" 100 men at the White Sands Missile Range's Launch Complex Com-plex at Green River, provides technical and administrative support for all Pershing firing fir-ing operations. Other participants include U. S. Army Test and Evalua- tion Command (TF.COM) elements ele-ments of White Sands Mis. sile Range, the Pershing Prc-jiH-t Manager's Otfice (PPM O) of the U. S. Army Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ars-enal, Ala., and the U. ,S. Army Field Artillery Missile Syetems Evaluation Croup (FAMSF.G) of Ft. Sill. Also on har.d will be rep resent at ives of the Martin Marietta Corp., Orlando, Fla , prime contractors for Pershing Persh-ing missiles. The first rounds in the series ser-ies will be part of a product improvement program con ductal for TFCOM by Army Missile Test and Evaluation Directorate (ARMTE) of WS MR. Technical test director for this four-round program will be Paul K. Arthur ef ARMTE. The first round, to be fired by the 3rd Battalion, will be a P-l model Pershing, using a P-lA-lmproved model programmer pro-grammer test station (PTS). The other three rounds in the product improvement program, pro-gram, to 'be tired by Seventh Army Unit from Europe, will be the newer P-IA-Improved type rounds. In addition to improvements improve-ments in the power station (PS), the newer models incorporate in-corporate a newly designed guidance and control section. The P1A Improved models were fired for the first time in the 1971 fall series, conducted con-ducted last September and October from McGregor Range near El Paso, Texas. The other 16 rounds in the spring series will be P-l A mrdeis. Alter eight firings by Seventh Army units in the program designated Follow, on Operational Tests (FOT), four rounds will be fired by German units. Then the series ser-ies will be concluded with four more FOT rounds fired by Seventh Army units. Technical test director for tiie 16 P 1A firings will be James F. Conner of TPMO, ' a resident of Huntsville, Ala., and a veteran of the Pershing Persh-ing off-range firing program. Test director since 1962, ore year before off-range firings began, he has never missed an off-range firing of a Pershing Per-shing missile. In the FOT program, firing operations will be conducted under simulated tactical conditions. con-ditions. Firing units will not be advised of the exact dates and times for their firings until they are placed on firing alert status (FAS), a few hours before launch time. Since the off-range program pro-gram began in the fall of 1963, some 150 Pershing missiles mis-siles have been fired from off-range sites to impact or, White Sands Missile Range. Pershings have been launched launch-ed from Gilson Butte, near Hanksville, and Black Mesa, near Blanding, as well as from Green River, all ii. Utah. Pershings also have been launched from Ft. Wij;-gate, Wij;-gate, Hueco Range and Mc-gregor Mc-gregor Range in New Mexico. The Pershing has a range of up to 400 miles and is capable cap-able of carrying a nuclear warhead. It has been operational opera-tional since 1963 and is deployed de-ployed with U. S. and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization Or-ganization defense forces in Europe. Most powerful of the U. S. Army's operational missile weapon systems, the Pershing Persh-ing is 35 feet long, 40 inches in diameter and weighs 10, 000 pounds at launch. The inertially guided, solid-pro-pellant ballistic missile travels tra-vels at supersonic speeds and is capable of operating ir. any weather conditions. |