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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1957.PDF
Si/o launch of LGM-25C Titan II at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The diagonal -plumes from the two exhaust ducts thunder out to a height of several hundred feet, but the missile itself rises through relatively cool and undisturbed air November, and the complete 150-missile wing was commissioned last July 3. Assembly of LGM-30A took place at USAF Plant 78, near Ogden, Utah (managed by Boeing, the prime contractor for assembly and test, under the military control of Hill AFB). All these missiles have been delivered. Improved Minuteman (LGM-30B, WS-133B) is now in full production, for the second USAF wing, and it incorporates several improvements. Chief differences are the use of titanium for the slightly fatter second-stage case, and the fitting of the new Avco Mk 11 re-entry vehicle. Further off, and likely to be deployed in the sixth Minuteman wing, is LGM-30C, which will be a considerable further advance. Instead of having four swivelling nozzles, the LGM-30C second stage will have a single fixed nozzle with TVC (thrust-vector control) by Freon liquid injection. The guidance and control functions are integrated into a single inertial/computer circuit employing modular microelectronics, and smaller and lighter than the guidance of LGM-30A despite serving additional functions such as thrust termination. Re-entry vehicle will be the GE Mk 12, in which results of the Abres (advanced ballistic re-entry systems) programme are incorporated. In April the USAF said: "The accuracy against a hardened target is such that two Improved Minutemen would ensure a desired probability of a kill rather than eight of the earlier type." Flight testing of various advanced types of Minuteman has given rise to a number of problems which have resulted in the proportion of completely successful missions being lower than the record established by the Wing 1 missile; but in recent months results have been better. Numerous hybrid missiles have been launched com bining featues of both types, but many Improved Minuteman XLGM-30B test missiles have been launched down the Atlantic Missile Range, lately backed up by US Air Force indoctrination and training shots down the Pacific Missile Range. Wing 2 is now being progressively equipped at Ellsworth AFB, Dakota. Wings 3 and 4 are in an advanced stage of construction at Minot AFB, N Dakota, and Whiteman AFB, Missouri. The fifth complex is now also in hand at Francis E. Warren AFB, in Wyoming, the first (Atlas) 760 FLIGHT International, 7 November 1963 1 MISSILES 1963 1CBM base of all. These five bases (16 squadrons) account for 800 missiles, for Warren will have 200. A further 150 missiles are programmed under the 1964 fiscal year which began on July A. This latest batch will almost certainly be the first of the LGM-30C, and the complex will be located at Grand Forks AFB, N Dakota. Apart from Minuteman only Polaris is currently under intensive development. Since this weapon system is the subject of a major feature article in this issue it is necessary here only to recapitulate the present position. Five US Navy submarines are operational with the A-l missile, five are operational with the A-2, seven A-2 submarines are undergoing trials or fitting out and 24 submarines are under construction or authorized all armed with the A-3 missile. Each ship has 16 launch tubes, all of which are theor etically held at instant readiness. Titan I has been a completed programme for some 15 months. The prime contractor, Martin Denver, achieved an excellent record for rapid development and system reliability with this pioneer two- stage missile, and conducted exhaustive static tests on every R&D missile before flying it down to the Cape. The 54 on station are deployed in six squadrons, at Lowry AFB, Denver, Colorado (two squadrons); Beale AFB, Marysville, Calif; Larson AFB, Moses Lake, Wash; Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City, S Dakota; and Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Each squadron has three under ground hard complexes, each having three silos (at the time of writing, a silo at Beale is still out of commission following a missile explosion last year). The missiles are stored with stages assembled but with tanks empty; fast propellant loading fills the liquid- oxygen and RP-1 kerosine tanks of both stages and the missile is raised to the surface immediately before liftoff (and the silo elevator at one time gave a lot of trouble). Several Titan Is fired from Vandenberg AFB during SAC troop training have been intercepted by Nike Zeus fired from Kwajalein Atoll. Titan n differs chiefly in having greater tank capacity (see scale drawings) and more powerful engines in both stages using nitrogen tetroxide (N204) and Aerozine 50, a 50-50 mixture of unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine and hydrazine. This mixture confers two benefits: it is hypergolic, i.e., the two fluids ignite spontaneously Minuteman LCM-30A transporter/erector loading a silo at Malmstrom AFB, the sprawling complex administered by the US 15th Air Force and occupying much of the State of Montana. All the ISO silos of this first wing of Minuteman missiles are now loaded, and at 32 seconds' readiness
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