MGM-5 Corporal

The MGM-5 Corporal missile was an American short-range, nuclear-armed tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missile. It was the first guided weapon authorized by the United States to carry a nuclear warhead. A guided tactical ballistic missile, the Corporal could deliver either a nuclear fission, high-explosive, fragmentation or chemical warhead up to a range of .

It was developed by the United States Army in partnership with Caltech's pioneering Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and initially produced by Douglas Aircraft Company. The Corporal was the second in a series of JPL rockets for the US Army whose names correspond to the progression in Army enlisted ranks, starting with Private before ultimately leading to the MGM-29 Sergeant.

Design and development

thumb|Major General [[Gladeon M. Barnes (right) and JPL Acting Director Frank Malina (left) stand below the 39-foot Corporal E, which was launched in May 1947.]]

The U.S. Army Ordnance California Institute Technology (ORDCIT) program that eventually produced the Corporal ballistic missile began in June 1944 with a contract to the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratories California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) to develop a ballistic guided missile. As the technology to build such a weapon did not exist in the United States it had to be created. GALCIT, later transformed into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), began incremental efforts starting with a solid-fuel rocket program called Private. It progressed to a liquid-fuel unguided sounding rocket called WAC Corporal and a much larger guided research missile, the Corporal E. In late 1949 the Army desired to accelerate the Corporal program to create a military weapon by turning the Corporal E into a crash program and cancel the intended additional research variants. The resultant Corporal ballistic missile was developed by JPL and first flew in its weapon version at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on August 7, 1952. this required elaborate and time-consuming preparation immediately before launch, making its tactical responsiveness questionable.

Guidance for the Corporal consisted of a complex system of internal and ground guidance. During the initial launch phase, inertial guidance kept the missile in a vertical position and pre-set guidance steered it during its launch. The ground guidance system was a modified World War II SCR-584 radar which tracked the missile's position, as well as its slant range. This information was sent to an analog computer which calculated the trajectory and any necessary correction to hit the target. A Doppler radar was used to accurately measure the missile's velocity, and this information was also used in the trajectory calculation. The Doppler radar was also used to send the final range correction and warhead arming command after the missile re-entered the atmosphere. Transponder beacons were used in the missile to provide a return signal for tracking at maximum range. The vulnerability of the Corporal system was of concern from the beginning of the weapon program. Electronic anticountermeasures were addressed over the length of the program and would have been greatly improved in Corporal III. Though a variety of warheads from high explosive and fragmentation to chemical had been developed the warhead which the missile was equipped was the W-7 (Mk.7).thumb|Corporal of the [[Royal Artillery in West Germany]]A Corporal battalion was composed of 250 men requiring 35 vehicles to deploy and took nine hours to set up the missile to fire once the launch position had been reached. Still the aggregate accuracy of all Type IIs with a CEP (Circular Error Probable) of 350 meters which was still short of the desired 300 meters. The role of JPL was greatly reduced in 1955–56.

thumb|"The Corporal Story" (1955) Official de-classified U.S. Army information film reel.

The deficiencies of the Corporal II led to the design and development of Corporal III. The objectives of Corporal III were to produce a much improved weapon system with improved reliability, ground support equipment, and especially ground guidance equipment, to provide the Army with a fully developed weapon. Only small changes to the Corporal IIb missile would be required. In 1956 all research and development work on the Corporal II had been completed. A study at Redstone Arsenal noted that the MGM-29 Sergeant missile system would become available for service in 1963 and that Corporal III equipment should only be procured for additional Corporal units. Though a Type III Corporal was flown in 1957 it was too late for the eternally developing Corporal system.

Operators

thumb|MGM-5 in flight.

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British Army, Royal Artillery
27th Guided Weapons Regiment RA 1957–1966
47th Guided Weapons Regiment RA 1957–1965

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United States Army
246th Missile Battalion (reflagged as 2nd Battalion 80th Field Artillery Regiment (Fort Sill))
259th Missile Battalion (reflagged as 1st Battalion 40th Field Artillery Regiment (Fort Bliss))
523rd Missile Battalion (reflagged as 1st Battalion 81st Field Artillery Regiment (Fort Carson))
526th Missile Battalion (reflagged as 1st Battalion 84th Field Artillery Regiment (Fort Sill))
530th Missile Battalion (reflagged as 1st Battalion 39th Field Artillery Regiment (Germany))
531st Missile Battalion (reflagged as 1st Battalion 38th Field Artillery Regiment (Germany))
543rd Missile Battalion (reflagged as 1st Battalion 82nd Field Artillery Regiment (Italy))
557th Missile Battalion (reflagged as 2nd Battalion 81st Field Artillery Regiment (Germany))
558th Missile Battalion (reflagged as 1st Battalion 82nd Field Artillery Regiment (Germany))
559th Missile Battalion (reflagged as 2nd Battalion 84th Field Artillery Regiment (Germany))
570th Missile Battalion (reflagged as 1st Battalion 80th Field Artillery Regiment (Italy))
601st Missile Battalion (reflagged as 2nd Battalion 40th Field Artillery Regiment (Germany))

MGM-5 Corporal

Design and development

Operators

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links