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Show Twelve rounds have been scheduled in the spring series of off-range firings of the Per-shing ballistic missile, the U. S. Army's most powerful land combat missile system in operational use. The missiles will be launched in April, May, June and July from Black Mesa, 15 miles' southwest of Blanding, Utah. They will be programmed to impact on White Sands Missile Range, about 350 miles away on a straight line. Firing four annual service practice (ASP) rounds will be units of the Federal Republic of Germany Air Force. For these rounds, the older model P-l ground support equipment, mounted on tractor-type tracked vehicles, will be used. Firing eight rounds will be units of the Seventh U. S. Army, based in Europe. The newer model P-1A ground support equipment, mounted on five-ton, eight-wheeled, rubber-tired vehicles, will be used for these rounds. Six of the firings with the new equipment will be designated DASO, for Demonstration and Shakedown Operations. Operations will be conducted under simulated tactical conditions. Exact dates and times for fir ings may not be announced until the troop units are placed on FAS - firing alert status - a few hours before launch time. But preparations will begin in March. Arriving from theU.S. Army Field Artillery and Mis- aile -Center--at- Ft. Sill, -GK-a.,, will be the 2nd Battalion, 44th Artillery, 9th Field Artillery (Missile) Group. The 2nd Battalion provides logistical, technical and, administrative support to the firing units. About 400 strong, the battalion will occupy the Pershing camp on Black Mesa. Prefabricated metal buildings were erected at the camp last year to replace the tents previously used. A small detachment of the 2nd Battalion has been on hand at Black Mesa to maintain the camp during the winter. Also arriving in the Blanding area in late March and early April will be field units of I several other supporting organizations. These will include most major elements of White Sands Missile Range. nclude the UT-S.- Army Field Artillery Missile Systems Evaluation Group (FAMSEG) of Ft. Sill, and the Pershing Project Manager's (Continued on Page 3) Pershings (Continued from Page 1) Office (PPMO) of Redstone Arsenal, Ala. Project manager at Redstone is Colonel RutledgeP.Hazzard, Chief of the PPMO field office in Utah, in the Blanding City Hall, will be James E. Conner. Commanding officer of FAMSEG is Lieutenant Colonel John A. Zalewski. Operations will be coordinated through the Utah Launch Complex of WSMR at Green River. Director of this element of WSMR National Range Operations (NRO) is A. Muray Maughan. Pershing staff project engineer for NRO is Reed Larsen. Pershing test coordinator for WSMR's Army Missile Test and Evaluation (ARMTE) will be W. E. Worthy. Prime contractor for Pershing missiles is the Orlando (Fla.) division of the Martin Marietta Corporation. Representatives of Martin Marietta will be in Utah during the fir ing operations. The two-stage Pershing, which employs solid propellants in a propulsion system developed for theArmybyThiokol Chemical Corporation, has been operational with U.S. and NATO forces in Europe since 1963. The system replaced the larger but shorter-ranged and less mobile Redstone surface-to-surface missile. Missiles are not fired for practice or training purposes in Europe. , The Utah-to-New Mexico firings, under rigidly controlled conditions for utmost safety, serve a dual purpose. They provide training for troops, as well as test evaluation data for the product improvement program. In the 1969 firing program, also conducted at Black Mesa, 14 Pershing rounds were fired. Eight rounds were fired last April, and six rounds in September. |