THE SOLID PUNCH

full field commanders faced with tactical using weapons now operational or in development let's look at it on the situation lesser general we had confirmation of a target here elements of an Armored Division I recommend we use a big one fine what do you think from an operations of your point well I concur with the recommendation it won't interfere with our plan of operation at all and it's agreed all right let's give them a solid punch i'm chet huntley at a launching site where army missile stand ready around the clock every day of the year the solid punch aptly describes the Army's new generation of rockets and missiles for they all pack a powerful punch such as these you see here i should like to report to you on the army's great progress in the field of rockets and missiles and show you the results of the teamwork affected between the army and great names in industry in producing these modern weapons of warfare this is the clenched fist that delivers the solid punch a type of solid fuel motor which propels the Army's new generation of rockets and missiles this uncomplicated solid fuel provides a new dimension in effectiveness for a broad range of powerful army missiles each with its own carefully engineered capability and tactical mission new generation solid fuel missiles include lacrosse a highly accurate general support field artillery guided missile for use in close tactical support of ground troops against hard point targets such as fortified positions Honest John designed to provide fire support for ground combat operations is a free flight rocket with a range equivalent to that of medium to long range artillery sergeant a surface-to-surface guided missile which extends the range of artillery making available to the field commander greater firepower to reach deeper into the enemy rear areas Pershing a large inertially guided ballistic missile with the mobility of smaller missiles but which packs a powerful punch over distances far in excess of the longest range of our artillery capability Hawk is an anti-aircraft weapon system designed to defend troops in the field against enemy attacking aircraft flying at low altitudes nike hercules soars to altitudes in excess of 100,000 feet over range of 75 miles and is a high-level anti-aircraft missile Nike Zeus now in an advanced stage of research and development is designed to leap up to extreme altitudes almost instantaneously to defend against enemy long-range ballistic missiles coming toward a target from any direction at speeds in excess of 15,000 miles an hour the new generation solid fuel missiles augment the already in the field liquid fuel missile systems such as the surface to surface corporal and redstone altogether the liquid and solid fuel missile systems are intended to provide the best backup support known for our fighting men during its rapid strides into the missile era the army has never lost sight of its guiding doctrine but in war it is the foot soldier Sean here in a combat exercise who is the arm of ultimate decision the arm that wins Wars by capture or destruction of the enemy and his territory in addition to the new and effective missile and rocket support the infantryman has been and still is supported by artillery reliable 105 millimeter howitzer 155 millimeter holitzer and the new 175 millimeters self-propelled long-range gun and here is a current concept on the relationship between artillery and missiles in today's rapidly changing concepts of tactical warfare battlefield commanders know there is a need for both conventional artillery and missiles conventional artillery has the advantage of superiority and rate of fire that means artillery can fire more shells faster to provide close fire support accuracy for the attacking infantry men and armor also conventional artillery fire is cheaper and can react more quickly to battlefield targets of opportunity targets which suddenly appear and may soon disappear if not clobber most missiles however have two decisive advantages over conventional artillery weapons they are destructive power and range where few exceptions missiles can deliver atomic warheads and one missile warhead can have the demolition effect of hundreds or even thousands of conventional artillery shells as for range the father's reach of conventional artillery like this one 75 millimeter gun is about 20 miles whereas ami missiles such as the Pershing and her'll their warheads are targets hundreds of miles away so you see not only can they cover much wider sectors of the front but can also go far deeper into the enemy rear to destroy troop equipment and supply concentrations as well as other important tactical targets the army brought America its first triumphs in missile ray beginning in 1949 revealed in this historical motion picture film with the launching of the wac Corporal missile this liquid fuel missile system was the first to penetrate outer space and reach an altitude of 250 miles then a world record as a result of this black corporal success the army went in for quantity production of a tactical liquid fuel corporal missile and later the redstone missile system these efforts were climaxed by the launching of the army's jupiter-c missile system that put into orbit the free worlds first satellite explorer 1 in addition to this historic space achievement the army has since made many subsequent missile recon tributions which will help provide the basis for our nation's exploration of outer space the Army's liquid fuel missile systems are fine useful weapons they have and are serving their purpose as well it was inevitable however that in the evolution of missile riete eve Minh some more simple fuel system was required a system that assured greater mobility and would withstand the rigors of battlefield transportation also the army needed missiles that would not take so long to erect fuel and fire in the words of the experts the army required rockets and missiles with fast reaction time in army laboratories such as those at the picatinny arsenal efforts had been underway to create missiles with fast reaction time through research in the technology of solid fuel propellants at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology then under army contract scientists made a giant stride forward in solid fuel research they discovered that Paulo sulfide polymer a kind of synthetic rubber commercially produced by the thiokol Chemical Corporation was an excellent rocket fuel that would harden and bond itself directly to the wall of the rocket case thus was born a practical concept of solid fuel shown here in a mixer at the Army's Redstone Arsenal close liaison with industry then provided the army with further research and development on solid fuel technology in 1948 an army industrial team undertook the production of a case bonded solid propellant rocket motor the program was a success making possible a new generation of fuel missiles the first solid fuel motors to be produced in quantity by the army were small but effective and included the engine for the air-to-air missile Falcon for the Army's sister service the Air Force some of America's leading scientists have been teammates with the army and have made contributions to solid fuel technology one of the pioneers in this field who will explain how a solid fuel motor operates is the past president of the American rocket society and fire calls vice president in charge of rocket operations dr. Harold W Ritchie every missile motor must have a combustion chamber in which the propellant burns the burning of propellant creates expanding gases which results in the production of physical force in missile terms we call this force thrust the rocket Force which propels a missile what are the great advantage of the solid motor is that the combustion chamber is formed within the solid propellant charge here's a cross section of a cast solid fuel motor this hollow area in the center is the combustion chamber but this cutaway motor you can see the entire combustion chamber which extends at a specially shaped cavity through its full length the propellant is ignited simultaneously along the entire length and surface of the combustion chamber upon ignition the propellant burns from the inside out until burn out at the motor wall casing simplicity of design is one of the great advantages of the solid fuel motor eliminating the need for pumps valves pipes cooling system and the other internal hardware of the liquid fuel system the advantage of solid rocket simplicity coupled with its capability to produce thrust instantly enables a solid fuel motor to get off the ground and into flight more quickly and consequently to put more of its thrust to work delivering the payload with all the advantages of simplicity and reliability built into the solid fuel mortars there is one more important aspect of these missiles insofar as tactical application is concerned it is this the entire missile mortar including its solid fuel is packaged at the manufacturing plant it is ready for instantaneous fairing when it is assembled in the missile and it can be stored indefinitely in there any condition the Army's new generation of solid fuel missiles can be put into action fast speed is always important many times this I see some of the first of the solid fuel missiles already in the field for tactical employment include the LaCrosse the hawk which uses a homing device guidance system to knock off low-flying enemy aircraft thus filling the gap from zero altitude up to minimum nike capability and the nike hercules which is lethal to enemy aircraft even in excess of 100,000 feet highly effective are the first of the second-generation missiles however the small solid motor was not powerful enough to deliver heavier payloads over longer ranges a hope for solution to a larger solid fuel motor was put in this test and a motor with 5,000 pounds of solid propellant this RV a 10 experimental motor not only was successful but proved the principle of scalability this meant solid motors could be built up to any size with thrusts capable of delivering huge missiles with heavy payloads over vast distances the Army's new generation of solid fuel motors was now in the big leagues as indicated by this static test firing at the Army's Longhorn ordnance works larger solid motors went into production in new modern facilities specially designed for this purpose the sergeant was one of the first of the larger solid fuel missiles made possible by these impressive army successes in solid propellant technology this large motor is the first stage booster for the sergeant system now in research and development stages the sergeant is lighter and smaller than its liquid fuel predecessor the Corporal yet has greater firepower the complete system requires fewer vehicles and it is adaptable to all kinds of weather and terrain the missile requires less time to be put into action since all of its components may be assembled in the field in a matter of minutes this is because the solid fuel propulsion system is completely loaded at the manufacturing plant and therefore no time is lost at the launch site on fueling activities the sergeant system has a specially adapted erector launcher which may be emplaced anywhere without special preparation as demonstrated here in a field emplacement exercise solid fuel missiles can be stored in the ready condition indefinitely a definite tactical advantage since the time required to get the missile in flight is reduced to a minimum solid fuel missiles have economic advantages to lower manufacturing costs less ground support equipment required and less training time for the crew which is smaller resulting largely from its simpler fuel system design and other missile rhea dances even with these advantages the sergeant meets the higher standards of reliability in the field the sergeant shown here in another test follows a ballistic trajectory in flight to its target carrying either a nuclear or conventional warhead this firing utilizes a conventional warhead the x17 experimental high altitude research rocket was one beneficial result of the progress in solid fuel technology accomplished by army industrial teamwork these army accomplishments were to be a major influence in the development of solid-fuel missile systems within the other services the Air Force called on one of the Army's industrial partners to develop the three solid fuel propulsion stages for the x17 which was launched after only six static tests of its first stage solid propellant booster the x seven teams outstanding flight record was 39 out of 39 the x17 paced the Swift March of missile history that led to the development of the Air Force Minuteman the free worlds first solid fuel intercontinental ballistic missile system the advent of the nuclear submarine which provided a far-ranging launching vehicle for ballistic missiles required a solid fuel factory loaded propulsion system and so it was that the Navy to benefited from the accomplishments of the Army industrial team in solid propellant technology fire call under government contract proved the feasibility of this concept and thus was born Polaris the Aerojet General Corporation developed and is producing the solid fuel motors for polaris shown here now being fired from the submerged submarine the controlled atmosphere and smooth ride of the nuclear submarine provides a far-ranging launching vehicle for our defense the Army's Pershing missile system now in an advanced stage of research and development goes through a field demonstration to show how it has been especially developed to meet the rugged requirements of land warfare the solid fuel Pershing is engineered to withstand the jarring transportation of terrain the world over and to operate efficiently in a wide variety of temperature and humidity conditions it is more field worthy and more accurate than the redstone missile and yet it is lighter smaller and is extremely mobile with its transporter erector launcher in its present stage of development the Pershing system could be scaled up somewhat and modified to obtain a greatly increased range with its proven reliability the Pershing is a powerful missile for field army support and now at a special installation at the Redstone Arsenal you will see a knight captive firing of the entire Pershing propulsion system all motors of the Pershing propulsion system are tested in proper sequence in this static test stand the first-stage booster motor is now firing the second stage motor is mounted just to the right of the booster and it will fire after the first stage burnout following the completion of this first stage motor firing there will be a delay of several seconds this is the same time lapse sequence that the propulsion system would experience an actual flight during the delay after the end of the first stage burnout and before the ignition of the second stage motor the missile simply costs through space in unpowered flight and the first stage separates from the missile and drops away the second stage ignites and continues the powered flight of the missile the jet flame of this motor lights up the protective barrier around the test stand at a set time during the firing of the second stage motor the thrust is terminated by a power device and the warhead is separated to follow a ballistic trajectory to its pre-selected target it is because of the increasing mobility of our armed forces that weapons are designed to possess built-in ruggedness to withstand the rigors of every type of terrain and to operate in all kinds of weather conditions with proven reliability these requirements enable our weapons to keep pace with and support our far-ranging fast-moving hard-hitting army troops the Army's new generation of solid fuel missiles fills the bill of all three requirements mobility ruggedness and reliability to support our modern army in the field the Army industrial team is still at work to develop dramatic new advances in missile ray for example this Nike Zeus missile now in an advanced state of development uses a type of command guidance system already developed for nike hercules test firings have proved the ability of the guidance system to intercept another missile in flight in this test a corporal missile is launched standing ready for launch and intercept is a nike hercules for the proof of the nike hercules intercepting the corporal missile in flight is documented here in stop-motion photography leaping in the air like a bolt of lightning Nike Zeus undergoes a test in a remarkable photographic record the 450 thousand pound thrust of the booster terminates in flight the booster separates and the second stage ignites the nikes new system is in position underground here ready to be fired this underground launch facility called a cell provides better protection against enemy attack with Nike Zeus the army is engaged in a program to confirm that a true defense against enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles is possible impressive as the Nike Zeus system is in the final analysis it is yet but another modern weapon just as is the m14 rifle produced for the specific purpose of providing the best support known for our fighting man who first last and always serve as the ultimate defense of our country and who now are backed up with a new generation of rockets and missiles each with its own solid punch since the days of the American Revolution the Army has called on American industry to help meet the defensive needs of our country many times the results of Army industrial teamwork have benefited our country over and above its basic defense purpose the Army's rocket and missile programs as an example have made important contributions to our nation's space achievements this is chet huntley concluding this report on rockets and missiles of the united states army you