Corporal missile

The American-made Corporal missile was the first guided weapon authorised by the US to carry a nuclear warhead. A surface-to-surface guided missile, the Corporal could deliver either a nuclear fission or high-explosive warhead up to a range of 75 nautical miles.

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Developed by the United States Army in partnership with Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, Gilfillan Brothers Inc, Douglas Aircraft Company and Caltech’s pioneering Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Corporal was designed as a tactical nuclear missile for use in the event of Cold War hostilities in Eastern Europe. The first U. S. Army Corporal battalion was deployed in Europe in 1955. Six U. S. battalions were deployed and remained in the field until 1964, when the system was replaced by the solid-fueled Sergeant missile system.

Related Topics:
United States Army - Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Cold War - Sergeant missile

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The Corporal was first developed in White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico drawing on the technical experience and expertise that the Americans acquired from the German V-2 rocket programme after the second world war. After being sold to Britain in 1954, it became the first US guided missile destined for service in a foreign country to be used by a foreign power. Subsequent test-firing by British and German Corporal battalions took place in the Scottish island of South Uist in 1959, where a special Royal Artillery 'Rocket Range' was built in 1957-58.

Related Topics:
White Sands Missile Range - V-2 rocket - South Uist

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For what was the front line of nuclear defence, the Corporal missile was notoriously unreliable and inaccurate. It used a liquid-fueled rocket burning red fuming nitric acid and hydrazine; this required elaborate and time-consuming preparation immediately before launch, making its tactical responsiveness questionable. For guidance, it employed commands sent through a reworked WWII-vintage radar system. Until 1955, its in-flight accuracy was less than 50 per cent, with only modest improvements thereafter. The first year of British test firings in 1959 yielded a success rate of only 46%, a dismal record which raised questions among military planners of its operational effectiveness in Germany.

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As with many such weapons of mass destruction, the Corporal missile was miniaturised as a children's toy. A version of the Corporal was made as a die-cast toy by manufacturers such as Corgi and Dinky. The Corgi Corporal - targeted at children as 'the rocket you can launch' - was timed to co-incide with the British test firing in 1959.

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References

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Army Ballistic Missile Agency (1961) Development of the Corporal: the embryo of the army missile program Vol 1. ABMA unclassified report, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama

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MacDonald, F (2005) Geopolitics and 'the Vision Thing': regarding Britain and America's first nuclear missile http://www.geography.unimelb.edu.au/staff/macdonald.html, published by the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, The University of Melbourne.

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