Activation of new aaa units - Air Defense Artillery

The Antiaircraft Guided Missile
By Lieutenant Colonel William L. Clay, Ord.
INTRODUCTION
During the last year, the attention of the reader of articles
on guided missiles has been focused on the German V-I
and \'-2 rockets which were conceived and employed offensively
during \Vorld War 11. Although these rocketpropelled
devices, strictly speaking, were not guided missiles
in the true sense of the word since no control was
exercised after launching, they did represent the first step
in this direction and were intended ultimately to be completely
automatic in control. Particularly, in the case of the
V-2, these articles have illustrated the complexity of engineering
problems which are encountered in the development
of weapons of this type. This complexity is also
apparent from the fact that approximately ten years of German
research and development work in the fields of propulsion,
control, and aerodynamics were required before successful
results were obtained. However, despite the great
technical achievements that were attained, the resultant
product was expensive in man-hours, inefficient in payload,
and inaccurate in range.
Previous articles in the JOURNAL have empasized the
complex nature of the research program in the guided
missile field, particularly with reference to the development
of an antiaircraft guided missile which requires, for successful
application, a completely automatic guidance system
and extreme accuracy at relatively long range. Since this
Figure I-Booster, Missile and Launcher.
weapon has been little publicized as yet because of security
restrictions and since it is vitally important for defensive
purposes, it is believed that a general description of such
a system as presently visualized will better acquaint the
layman with the various types of complicated engineering
problems to be encountered in the research and development
program.
But before discussing the components of this system, perhaps
it would be of interest to comment brieRy on the reasons
that motivated German and American development in
the missile field.
THEND IN DEVELOPMENT
In the German program, emphasis on the development
of specific types of missiles was influenced primarily by the
progress of the war. Although fundamental research was
initiated in the early 1930's, rocket-propelled missiles did
not make their appearance until the middle of 1943. At that
time, the Germans began employing radia-controlled bombs
which were guided remotely by visual observation. These
missiles were used offensively against Allied shipping since
the control aircraft could remain out of range of antiaircraft
fire from the ships. In this phase, the Germans definitely
had the initiative and therefore development was concentrated
on air-ta-surface weapons.
As the war progressed, German air superiority decreased
and finally they were unable to utilize their guided bombs
effectively. In addition, the attempt to bomb England into
submission also failed because of effective British air and
ground defenses. As a result, German effort was directed
toward the development of surface-to-surface weapons
which would enable them to carry out long-range strategic
bombing. This program resulted in the development of
the V-I and V-2 missiles which were employed tactically in
the middle of 1944.
As the Allied bombing attacks continued to increase in
frequency and effectiveness, the development of guided
missiles for defense against bombers was finally given first
priority. Although several of these missiles had reached
their final tests and were in limited production, none were
employed tactically. However, their immediate effectiveness
probably would have been limited, since they were
guided visually by remote radio control. The development
of completely automatic control systems was suspended in
1945 because of the critical manpower shortage and scarcity
of materials, Thus, it can be seen that the fortunes of war
had a pronounced effect on the trend of German de\'elopment.
Guided missile development in the United States during
the war was undertaken bv civilian universities, research
laboratories and industrial ~oncerns in addition to that work
,