PERSHING

The PERSHING Project Office

Responsibility for systems management and engineering of the PERSHING program was initially assigned to the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, in 1958. A series of project directors exercised full authority for the program's overall development.

When ABMA was absorbed into the Army Ordnance Missile Command (AOMC) on December 11, 1961, the PERSHING, like all other major weapon systems assigned to AOMC, entered under a form of project management. This project office was the direct forerunner to the vertical project management system established by the U.S. Army Materiel Command.(AMC) on August 1, 1962.

The U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM), a major subordinate command of AMC, was activated at Redstone Arsenal on this same date. The PERSHING was one of the original 30 items placed under this form of management at MICOM. The PERSHING Project Office remained under MICOM's jurisdiction until May 1, 1987, when the Program Executive Office (PEO) for Fire Support was established at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

After the historic Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and the USSR became effective on June 1, 1988, the PERSHING Project Office subsequently returned to MICOM's jurisdiction in March 1989. Responsibility for PERSHING project management was placed under the direction of the newly established MICOM Weapon Systems Management Directorate on August 27, 1989.

The PERSHING Missile System

Conceived as a replacement for the REDSTONE, the PERSHING I was first deployed in August 1963. A second generation system, the PERSHING la began replacing the PERSHING I in 1969. The improved system provided increased reliability and flexibility, additional ease of maintenance, lower mission cost, and enhanced operational time.

An evolutionary improvement of the PERSHING la system, the PERSHING II was first deployed in December 1983. Through the use of a terminally guided reentry vehicle with a new warhead, new propulsion sections, and modified PERSHING la ground support equipment, the PERSHING II provided increased effectiveness covering longer ranges with reduced collateral damage over the PERSHING la.

The increased range and pinpoint accuracy of the PERSHING II were major factors influencing the Soviet Union's decision to seek the Treaty on Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces in which the United States and the USSR agreed to eliminate an entire class of nuclear missiles.

Elimination of the PERSHING Missile System

In accordance with INF Treaty provisions, all of the U.S. Air Force's Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCMs) and the U.S. Army's tactical PERSHING II missile stages, launchers, trainers, and deployed reentry vehicles had to be eliminated by May 31, 1991. The Army's PERSHING la missiles had to be eliminated within 18 months of the treaty's effective date. A total of 234 PERSHING II missiles and 169 PERSHING la missiles were covered by the treaty. Army contractors completed the destruction of the last PERSHING la missiles on July 6, 1989, five months ahead of schedule. The last PERSHING II was eliminated in May 1991.

The majority of PERSHING missile stages were burned (static fired) and then crushed, primarily at Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant, Texas, or at Pueblo Depot Activity, Colorado. Representatives from the Soviet Inspection Team and the U.S. On-Site Inspection Agency were present to witness the elimination process.

The launchers were disassembled and major components-the major parts of the erection mechanism and launcher chassis-were cut in half. These treaty limited items were destroyed at Pueblo Depot Activity or at the Equipment Maintenance Center-Hausen (an activity of the Mainz Army Depot) near Frankfurt, Germany. Containers were either cut in half or detonated.

Each side also had permission to destroy 15 missiles and launchers by disabling, then permanently exhibiting them in museums and similar facilities. The 15 U.S. missiles and launchers were split between the Army's PERSHING II and the Air Force's GLCMs. A PERSHING II missile and launcher were put on display at the Field Artillery Museum, Fort Sill, Oklahoma; White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; the Eastern Test Range, Cape Canaveral, Florida; and the Alabama Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama. A missile only was exhibited also at Langley Air Force Base, Hampton, Virginia. The final two PERSHING II missiles and the last launcher were donated to the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum, which exchanged with the Soviet Union one PERSHING II for an SS-20 missile.

INF Treaty and the approved schedule, the stand down of the first PERSHING II United States Army, Europe (USAREUR) battery began.

Source: United States Army

 

Source: Time