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Show PAGE 10 - WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGER, JULY 6, 1973 Utah Launch Complex important in missile range testing program White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, one of six national missile ranges, provides flight safety and instrumentation support for off-range missile firings including the Air Force Athena research missile and the Army's Pershing artillery • ballistic missile system. The principal facility in WSMR's off-range test activities is the Utah Launch Complex at Green River, Utah. This was established in 1963 and is operated by Army personnel assigned from White Sands Missile Range. While the Athena and Pershing programs constitute the major activities at the Utah Complex, there are other test programs including inertial j navigation tests and firings of other missile systems. The Athena program has added considerably to the White Sands workload. Athena tests require more highly specialized instruments and personnel than most other tests conducted on the White Sands range. The Utah Launch Complex headquarters area near the township of Green River in eludes offices, a fire station, dining hall, telephone ex change, maintenance facilities, housing and technical buildings. The Atlantic Research Corporation, prime contractor to the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Organization, operates the technical facilities of the Athena program. The Pershing, the second major missile system utilizing the Utah facility, has^een launched from Black *Mesa near Blanding and from Gilson Butte since 1963. More recently, the highly mobile Pershing has been launched from a Green River based site, Since its establishment, the Utah Launch Complex has increased in value to nearly $8 million. The immediate ULC area just east of the Green River township includes 18,181 acres of land, which also holds the Pershing launch site first used in 1971. In addition to the headquarters area, Green River officials oversee missile firing operations at the other areas including Blanding, Utah. The Blanding area includes the Black Mesa Pershing launch site and safety area, and the White_Mesa radar complex'whicffna's aboTiF 488 acres used exclusively by the Army. In the 1960s, a third site - Gilson Butte, 40 miles south west of Green River - was used for Pershing launches. However, this site has been returned to the control of the Bureau of Land Management. Between the headquarters area and Athena launch facilities at the Green River Site, some five miles to the southeast, is the Army's instrumentation area. Here are located the radars, telemetry, optical systems, frequency monitoring equipment and meteorological station. White Sands Missile Range also provides re-entry data gathering instruments, data processing of trajectory and missile performance, survey of instruments and recovered items, timing to correlate instruments, logistics and calibration and ground and flight safety. Data collected during Athena firings are used by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Army, Navy, Air Force, Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and other Department of Defense agencies. During missile firings, WSMR instruments accurately determine missile position and behavior. All data are fed into a central computer system at the main range where computations are made of such things as missile guidance corrections and impact predictions for safety monitoring purposes. Impact predictions and associated data enable range flight safety officials to decide whether a missile is performing satisfactorily. The flight of a missile that does not function satisfactorily can be terminated and the missile impacted in a pre-selected safety area. Films, tape and chart records are compiled on each missile flight The Missile Range's support services end when the final data report is submitted to the range user (firing agency). | The complicated operations leading to the final report are important milestones to WSMR because the demonstrated capability to support such sophisticated programs as the Athena gives a new dimension to the range's service to the nation. Missile firings - Pershing, Athena and others - also require other support functions which are provided by WSMR personnel. Chief among these is the evacuation of residents from three land-tracts along the 450-mile flight-path. Residents of these areas are very cooperative in the Army's temporary use of their land. The same cooperation is evinced when roadblocks are necessary on the main highways near certain impact areas. The brief roadblocks are established as a safety precaution and always with the cooperation and coordination of local and state law enforcement agencies. The down-range areas used as impact zones are evacuated when missile firings are scheduled. One of the areas used for Pershing firings has about 1,000 residents, others contain from 20 to about 100 residents. Among prime users of the Utah Launch Complex are troops from the Seventh U.S. Army in Europe who return to the states for annual service practice firings of the Pershing missile. Also, units from the Federal Republic of Germany Air Force come to the Utah site for practice firings because West Europe does not have a range large enough for the powerful Pershing. In addition, artillery units from Fort Sill, OK, fire practice rounds of Pershings there. The Utah Launch Complex comes under the direction of WSMR's National Range Operations Directorate. A resident chief is assigned to be charge of the complex. |
