Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

The nUclear arena
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time that radio contact was achieved
with an object almost 250 miles (402.2
kilometers) above the earth. 6
Late in 1949, when missile and
rocket research was still in the evolutionary
phase, the Joint Chiefs of
Staff announced a new policy for
the development and use of guided
missiles. Generally, each arm was to
employ guided missiles in the manner
and to the extent necessary to perform
its assigned mission, and each service
was authorized to develop its own
weapons. Under the policy, the Army
was assigned the responsibility for
antiaircraft guided missiles and for
ground-launched short-range surfaceto-surface
guided missiles supplanting
or extending the capabilities of conventional
artillery. Despite the policy, the
develop ment of missiles and rockets
in the United States continued to be
fraught with duplications of effort and
confusion. 7
Wernher von Braun
The decision to accelerate the development of rockets and missiles in the late 1950s
represented the culmination of a frustrating period in which the program had depended
upon the extent of cuts necessary to remain within the annual defense budget ceiling.
In early 1950, Army Chief of Staff Collins established the Army Equipment Board
under V Corps commander Lt. Gen. John R. Hodge, to review the Army’s equipment
requirements and to establish a revised research and development guide. Although
6 DA Press Release, “Army Rocket Goes Over 250 Miles Into Outer Space,” 25 Feb 1949, copy in
CMH files; Donnelly, Guided Missile Program, pp. 9–10; James W. Bragg, “Development of the Corporal:
The Embryo of the Army Missile Program,” Historical Monograph no. 4, 1961, 1:xiv, files of U.S. Army
Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and copy in CMH files. For
additional information about the American program to bring German scientists to the U.S. for research after
World War II, see: Harriet Buyer and Edna Jensen, “History of AAF Participation in Project Paperclip,
May 1945–March 1947 (Exploi tation of German Scientists),” August 1948, files of Historical Office, Air
Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio; David S. Akens, “Historical Origins
of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center,” December 1960, files of National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Huntsville, Alabama; James McGovern, Crossbow and Overcast (New York: William
Morrow and Co., 1964); Clarence G. Lasby, Project Paperclip: German Scientists and the Cold War
(New York: Atheneum, 1971); and Paul H. Satterfield and David S. Akens, “Army Ordnance Satellite
Program,” 1 November 1958, AMCOM files and copy in CMH files.
7 Memo 1620/12, JCS for SecDef, 17 Nov 1949, sub: Assignment of Responsibility for Guided Missiles,
cited in Mary T. Cagle, “History of the Lacrosse Guided Missile System, 1947–1962,” 10 September
1962, p. 16, AMCOM files and copy in CMH files.