Named in honor of the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama where
it was developed, the SSM-A-14 Redstone was the first large
ballistic missile in the U.S. inventory. Designed by the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency under the leadership of the brilliant
Wernher von Braun, Redstone was a direct descendant of the A-4 /
V-2 rocket produced in Nazi Germany. Design work on the missile was
finished in 1952. It incorporated many innovations including
inertial guidance and a separable warhead section that, by
decreasing drag, increased the weapon's range. Steerable rudders
and refractory carbon vanes mounted in the rocket engine's exhaust,
ensured course control. Redstone first flew on August 20, 1953
although the result was inauspicious - it traveled a mere 4.5
miles. Test flights continued over the next five years, and many
refinements were made to ensure reliability. The final production
version had a range of just over 200 nautical miles, or 175
carrying a W-39 nuclear warhead. In August of 1958, a Redstone
became the first American missile to participate in a nuclear test,
detonating a 3.8 megaton warhead as part of Operation Hardtack. In
the field however, the Redstone missile proved cumbersome to move
into position and time consuming to activate. The process could
require twenty support vehicles and eight hours of work. A minimum
of fifteen minutes' fueling time - an eternity in a combat
situation - was needed after receiving a launch order. The solid
fueled Pershing missile, which replaced the Redstone in late 1964,
overcame these shortcomings. While Redstone's role as a weapon
system was brief, it had a major impact on America's early space
program. In January of 1958, just four months before the U.S. Army
activated the Redstone in Germany, a modified version designated
Jupiter-C put Explorer, America's first satellite, into orbit. In
1961, the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle lifted Alan Shepard into
space. Originally created in 1959 by prime contractor Chrysler
Corporation, which built 101 of the 128 missiles produced, This is
Redstone provides a detailed overview of this historic weapons
system. It includes chapters about the missile's structure,
operation, propulsion and propellant systems, ground support
equipment, guidance and controls, firing site operations, and more.
General
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