Pershing II

Development began in 1973 for an updated Pershing. The Pershing 1a had a 400 kt warhead, which was greatly over-powered for the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) tactical role the weapon system filled. Reducing warhead yield, however, required a significant increase in accuracy to match Pershing 1a's ability to kill hard targets like command bunkers. The contract went to Martin Marietta in 1975 with the first development launches in 1977. Pershing II was to use the new W85 warhead with a 5 to 80 kt variable yield or an earth-penetrator W86 warhead. The warhead was packaged in a maneuverable reentry vehicle (MARV) with active radar guidance and would use the existing rocket motors. Requests from Israel to buy the new Pershing II were rejected in 1975.[2]

The Soviet Union began deployment of the RSD-10 Pioneer (NATO designation SS-20 Saber) in 1976. Since the first version of the RSD-10 had a range of 2,700 miles (4,300 km) and two warheads, the Pershing II requirement was changed to increase the range to 900 miles (1,400 km), giving the ability to reach targets in eastern Ukraine, Belarus or Lithuania. The NATO Double-Track Decision was made to deploy both the medium-range Pershing and the longer-range, but slower BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) to strike potential targets farther to the east. The Pershing II with the longer-range motors was initially referred to as Pershing II Extended Range (PIIXR), then reverting to Pershing II.[3]

Both the hard-target capability and W86 nuclear warhead were canceled in 1980, and all production Pershing II missiles carried the W85.[1] A concept warhead using kinetic energy penetrators for counter-airfield operations never materialized.[4][5]

On 12 December 1979, the military commander of NATO decided to deploy 572 new nuclear missiles in Western Europe: 108 Pershing II Missiles and 464 Ground Launched Cruise Missiles. Of the cruise missiles, 160 were to be placed in England, 96 in West Germany, 112 in Italy (in Sicily), 48 in the Netherlands, and 48 in Belgium. All 108 Pershing II missiles were to be emplaced in West Germany replacing the current Pershing 1a missiles. The German Air Force planned to replace their 72 Pershing 1a missiles with the short-range Pershing 1b, but this never happened.

The second significant aspect of the NATO decision was the readiness to trade with the Soviet Union for the reduction or total elimination of these missiles against similar reductions or elimination of the Soviet SS-20 missiles. NATO's condition for not carrying out its plans for missile deployment would be the willingness of the U.S.S.R. to halt the deployment of the mobile SS-20 missiles that could be aimed at Western Europe and to remove the SS-20s that had already been deployed. In 1979, when the decision to deploy new NATO nuclear missiles was made, the Warsaw Pact had fourteen SS-20 launch sites selected, with one operational. According to estimates by NATO, at the beginning of 1986, the Warsaw Pact had deployed 279 SS-20 mobile missile launchers with a total of 837 nuclear warheads based in the eastern U.S.S.R.

The first Pershing II missiles were deployed in West Germany beginning in late November 1983 and completed in late 1985 with a total of 108 launchers. Initial Operational Status (IOS) was achieved on 15 December 1983 when A Battery, 1st Battalion, 41st Field Artillery Regiment rotated onto operational status with the Pershing II at its site in Mutlangen. By 1986 all three missile battalions were deployed with 108 Pershing II missiles, stationed in West Germany at Neu-Ulm, Mutlangen and Neckarsulm.

Protest against the deployment of Pershing II missiles, The Hague, Netherlands, 1983

The deployment of Pershing II and GLCM missiles was a cause of significant protests in Europe and the US, many organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[13][14]

Protests against the short-range MGM-52 Lance nuclear missile began in July 1981 in Engstingen, West Germany.[15] In October 1981, 300,000 protesters assembled in Bonn.[16] European Nuclear Disarmament began a campaign for nuclear disarmament in 1982. The Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice was formed in 1983 to protest the deployment. In 1983, protesters went to court to stop the Pershing II deployment as a violation of Article 26(1) of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, which prohibited West Germany from preparing for an offensive war.[17] The Federal Constitutional Court rejected these claims. Again in Bonn in October 1983, as many as 500,000 people protested the deployment and a human chain was formed from the US Army headquarters in Stuttgart to the gates of Wiley Barracks in Neu-Ulm, the site of one of the Pershing battalions.[18] Due to accessibility, the protests focused on the Mutlangen Missile Storage Area from Easter 1983 until the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987.[16][19] The 56th Field Artillery Command worked closely with the local police to ensure that the protesters interacted peacefully with the U.S. soldiers.

The Plowshares movement was active in actions against the deployment. 14 July 1983, Plowshare activists entered the Avco plant in Wilmington, Massachusetts and damaged equipment related to Pershing II and MX missiles.[20] On 4 December 1983, four Plowshare activists cut through a fence in Schwäbisch Gmünd and damaged a truck.[21][22] On 22 April 1984, eight Plowshare activists associated entered the Martin Marietta Aerospace plant in Orlando, Florida where they damaged Pershing II components and a Patriot missile launcher and poured containers of their own blood on equipment.[23] Four Plowshare activists entered the missile storage area (MSA) at Schwäbisch Gmünd, West Germany on 12 December 1986 and damaged the tractor of a Pershing II erector launcher and hung a banner over the truck.[22]

Pershing 1b during an Engineering Development shoot, January 1986

Pershing 1b was a single-stage, reduced-range version of Pershing II with the same range as the Pershing 1a. The Pershing II launcher was designed so that the cradle could be easily repositioned to handle the shorter missile airframe. The intent was to replace the German Air Force's Pershing 1a systems with Pershing 1b, since SALT II limited the range of German-owned missiles. The German government agreed to destroy its Pershing 1a systems when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. signed the INF Treaty, thus the Pershing 1b was never deployed. The single-stage missile was used for launches from White Sands Missile Range due to range limitations.

Pershing II Reduced Range (RR) was a follow-on concept that would have modified the launchers to hold two single-stage missiles.[29]

Pershing III was a proposal for a four-stage 25,000 pounds (11,000 kg) version that would have replaced the LGM-118 Peacekeeper.[30]

Pershing III is also a proposal for a coast-based missile system to counter the Chinese DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile.[31]

 United States: United States Army

• 56th Field Artillery Command, formerly 56th Artillery Brigade
  • 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, formerly 1st Battalion, 81st Field Artillery
  • 2nd Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, formerly 4th Battalion, 41st Field Artillery
  • 4th Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, formerly 3rd Battalion, 84th Field Artillery
• 214th Field Artillery Brigade
  • 3rd Battalion, 9th Field Artillery

Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev and U.S. President Reagan signing the INF Treaty on 8 December 1987

Pershing rocket motor being destroyed by static burn, September 1988

The Pershing systems were eliminated after the ratification of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty on 27 May 1988.[32] The missiles began to be withdrawn in October 1988 and the last of the missiles were destroyed by the static burn of their motors and subsequently crushed in May 1991 at the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant near Caddo Lake, Texas. Although not covered by the treaty, West Germany agreed unilaterally to the removal of the Pershing 1a missiles from its inventory in 1991, and the missiles were destroyed in the United States.

The INF treaty only covered the destruction of the launchers and rocket motors. The W-85 warheads used in the Pershing II missiles were removed, modified, and reused in the B61 nuclear bomb.

The Orbital Sciences Storm I target missile used air vanes from the Pershing 1a.[33] The Pershing II guidance section was re-used in the Coleman Aerospace Hera and the Orbital Sciences Corporation Storm II target missiles.

The INF Treaty allowed for seven inert Pershing II missiles to be retained for display purposes. One is now on display in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., alongside a Soviet SS-20 missile. Another is at the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow, Russia, also with an SS-20.[32] A number of inert Pershing 1 and Pershing 1a missiles are displayed in the U.S. and Germany.

Scrap material from the Pershing II and SS-20 missiles was used in several projects. Zurab Tsereteli created a sculpture called Good Defeats Evil, a 39-foot (12 m), 40-short-ton (36,000 kg) monumental bronze statue of Saint George fighting the dragon of nuclear war, with the dragon being made from sections of the Pershing II and SS-20 missiles. The sculpture was donated to the United Nations by the Soviet Union in 1990 and is located on the grounds of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

In 1991, Leonard Cheshire's World Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief sold badges of the group logo made of scrap material. The Parker Pen Company created a series of pens with a Memorial Fund badge made of scrap missile material, with half the proceeds going to the fund.[34]

On 4 November 1991 the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library opened in Simi Valley, California. The then five living presidents, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were present at the opening. Parker presented them each with a black ballpoint Duofold Centennial with the Presidential seal on the crown formed from scrap Pershing and SS-20 material, and engraved signatures of the presidents. The pen was also offered in a walnut box also with the names of all five presidents and the Presidential seal.[35]

In 2000, a number of U.S. Army Pershing missile veterans decided to seek out their fellow veterans and to start acquiring information and artifacts on the Pershing systems. In 2004, the Pershing Professionals Association was incorporated to meet the long-term goals—to preserve, interpret and encourage interest in the history of the Pershing missile systems and the soldiers who served, and to make such information accessible to present and future generations to foster a deeper appreciation of the role that Pershing played in world history.[36]

Veterans of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, who had performed the security for the Pershing systems formed a subchapter known as the Pershing Tower Rats. The two German Air Force missile squadrons also formed veterans groups known as the Flugkörpergeschwader 1 eV.[37][38]

• Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (MRBM)
• OpFires (MRBM)
• Medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM)
• Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
• Agni-P comparable in range

Media related to MGM-31 Pershing at Wikimedia Commons