Corporal missile

The MGM-5 Corporal missile was a nuclear-armed tactical ground to ground missile. It was the first guided weapon authorized by the United States to carry a nuclear warhead. A guided tactical ballistic missile, the Corporal could deliver either a nuclear fission or high-explosive warhead up to a range of 75 nautical miles (139 km).

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 Western 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 MGM-29 Sergeant missile system. The Corporal was the third in a series of JPL rockets for the US Army whose names correspond to the progression in Army enlisted ranks, starting with Recuit and Private and led finally to Sergeant.

The Corporal was first developed at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. It came out of the project ORDCIT series of rockets developed by the Army and the forerunner to Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After being sold to the United Kingdom in 1954, it became the first U.S. guided missile destined for service in a foreign country to be used by a foreign power.

For what was the front line of nuclear defense, 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 World War II-era radar system. Until 1955, its in-flight accuracy was less than 50%, 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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