Martin MGM-1 Matador

Le missile Martin MGM-1 Matador vu par Wikipedia.en

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The Martin MGM-1 Matador was the first operational surface-to-surface [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] built by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

It was similar in concept to the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], but the Matador included a radio link that allowed in-flight course
corrections.

This allowed accuracy to be maintained over greatly extended ranges of just under 1000 km.

To allow these ranges, the Matador was powered by a small [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engine in place of the V-1's much less efficient [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].


When originally introduced, the Air Force referred to them as [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], and assigned them the B-61 designation.

It was later re-designated "TM-61", for "tactical missile", and finally "'MGM-1" when the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] introduced the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in 1963.

History


The first flight of Matador, model XSSM-A-1, occurred at the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on 20 January 1949.

The first two production B-61 Matador missiles arrived at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Florida, in September 1953, under the control of the 6555th Guided Missile Squadron, for climatic testing, although instrumentation and pre-test check-outs kept the actual cold-weather tests from beginning until November.

At the end of 1953 the first squadron was operational, but not deployed until 1954, as the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] with the B-61A armed with the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The missile was capable of carrying a 2000 pound conventional warhead, but it is unknown if any of these were actually deployed.

By the late 1950s at least, all Matadors carried the nuclear warhead.

EF-84 G et MGM-1

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The last Matadors were removed from active service in 1962, with a total of 1200 missiles produced.

At that time, they were deployed in squadrons at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], West Germany, in Tainan, Taiwan, and in various locations in South Korea.

The specific maintenance training schools were in at the Glenn L. Martin factory and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], both in Denver Colorado, while the Launch Training was at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], FL (later transferred to the US Navy and renamed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Florida.

When the Tainan squadrons were deactivated, the airframes were made non-flyable by chopping out the attachment points in the bulkheads of the fuselage sections with axes, and were sold locally as scrap after having the warheads removed.

Most of the vehicles—consisting mainly of 2½ and 5-ton trucks, were disposed of on the local market.

Presumably, the other sites similarly disposed of their missiles and equipment.

Guidance

The missile was piloted via radio link and tracked via a network of ground-based [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] radar stations.

This guidance system, with its line-of-sight communications, limited the guided range to about 400 km (250 miles).

As with all radio communications it was also prone to enemy jamming.

While in theory the missile could be "handed off" in flight from one guidance station to the next, in practice that was rarely successful, and deployed missiles did not attempt it.

In 1954 the USAF started to develop the YTM-61C version which was equipped with the new Shanicle (Short Range Navigation Vehicle) guidance system.

It became operational in 1957 and used ground-based [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] emitters to generate hyperbolic grids for range and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which were used by the missile steering system to navigate.

Now the guided range could be extended to the maximum flight range of the missile, about 620 miles (1,000 km).

Anecdotal evidence indicated that the Shanicle system was very accurate, with stories of one missile flying into the ground in the same crater left by a previous missile during an early exercise in North Africa.

These may or may not be true, but in any case the Shanicle system was soon discontinued on operational missiles.

By the late 50's, all were using the MSQ-1 (called "MisCue-1" by the crews) ground-based guidance system.

A unique identifying feature of the TM-61C variant was the raised rear section of the fuselage above the jet exhaust, called the "doghouse" by those who were assigned to the missile squadrons.

This had originally housed the Shanicle electronics, but was retained when those systems were removed.

The "doghouse" had no access panels or doors and was an aerodynamic structural component added to TM-61C and TM-76A to prevent missile "shudder" and breakup during terminal dive. It contained no functional components.

The operational Matadors were zinc chromate green in their final versions, but this doghouse was quite often left natural aluminum, as were the wings and tail group.

Launch crew

The Matador launch crew consisted of eleven members.

One Launch Officer, who was usually a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (O-2) or a junior [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (O-3), one Crew Chief, usually a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (E-6), two Warhead techs, two Flight Control Systems techs, two Guidance techs, two Airframe and Engine techs—one of whom doubled as the crane operator and the other as the launcher tech, and one Booster Rocket tech.

Since the missile was at least theoretically "mobile", all launch equipment was mounted on trucks and trailers.

As a result, in addition to their primary duties, most crew members were trained as and doubled as drivers.

All enlisted members other than the Crew Chief were usually [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (E-3) or [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (E-2) on their first enlistment, though there were sometimes [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (E-5) or even [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (E-6) who had already served multiple enlistments.

In addition, there were similarly-sized Guidance crews on remote sites, and a maintenance staff for the missiles, the guidance equipment, and the vehicles.

Because of the number of people required to support the missile, a "mobile" Matador squadron with five launch crews could grow quite cumbersome.

As a result, the squadrons were soon deployed at fixed sites and the idea of a mobile missile was abandoned.

A single Matador missile required many vehicles to move it and its associated support equipment.

There was a Transport Vehicle, which was a short wheelbase semi-trailer which carried the missile with the wings
removed and attached alongside the fuselage, a Launcher, which was a semi-trailer more than 40 feet (12 m) long weighing more than 30,000 pounds.

There was a Target Selection Van, a Warhead Van, a 60 kW diesel generator, a tug, a hydraulic unit, a mobile Blockhouse, and a truck-mounted hydraulic crane.

There were several 2½ and 5 ton trucks (tractor type) to attach to and tow the launchers, Transport Vehicle, and generator.

In some squadrons, each launch team had a large trailer in which it stored weapons, ammunition and supplies.

Avec le MM1 Teracruzer

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A typical missile launch site had an active, or "hot" pad on which was kept the missile most ready to launch.

This pad was manned by the on-duty launch crew. According to the book, this required 15 minutes to do, but some crews could accomplish it in slightly more than 6 minutes.

The site usually had a backup pad, on which was a missile which would require somewhat more effort to get it launched.

This pad was manned by the standby crew, and if they were on site, could usually be ready to launch in 20–30 minutes.

If there was a third pad, it may not have a missile on it at all.

If one of the off-duty crews could make it to the launch site in time, they would try to get a missile onto the launcher
there, and get it ready to go.

Since all launch sites were within just a few minutes flying time of the potential enemy, it was unlikely that the third missile would actually launch, but all crews had multiple practice drills during their periods as duty and standby crews, trying to reduce the time needed to get the missiles away.