Corporal
The U.S. Army's CORPORAL, the first US ballistic guided missile, was about 45 feet long with control fins located on the ends of the large stabilizing fins. It weighed about five tons fueled and ready for launching. CORPORAL, with a range of more than 75 miles, could be equipped with either an atomic or conventional type warhead. The CORPORAL was the first surface-to-surface ballistic guided missile to be produced and made available to the Army Field Forces for tactical use. This missile system, which eventually demonstrated high performance and accuracy characteristics and good reliability, was developed as a natural progression of the ORDCIT program, which started with the PRIVATE-A and PRIVATE-F, continued with the WAC CORPORAL and CORPORAL-E, and finally became a separate weapon development program.
By the end of 1957 approximately 900 CORPORAL missiles had been produced, and at the end of FY 58, there was approximately 190 missiles available for U.S. stockpile. The system had a
circular probable error of less than 300 meters and an in-flight reliability of approximately 75 percent [as compared to less than 50 percent in 1955].
Sources and Resources
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/theater/corporal.htm
Maintained by Webmaster
Updated Wednesday, March 04, 1998 7:20:39 AM
