The MGM-29 Sergeant was an American short-range,

solid fuel Solid fuel refers to various forms of solid material that can be burnt to release energy, providing heat and light through the process of combustion. Solid fuels can be contrasted with liquid fuels and gaseous fuels. Common examples of solid fu ...

surface-to-surface missile A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea and strike targets on land or at sea. They may be fired from hand-held or vehicle mounted devices, from fixed installations, or from a ship. They ar ...

developed by the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

. The missiles were built by Sperry Utah Company. The Sergeant was the third and last in a series of JPL rockets for the US Army whose names correspond to the progression in Army enlisted ranks, starting with Private and Corporal. The Sergeant missile was first fired by an operational field artillery unit at White Sands New Mexico by the 3rd Battalion 38th Artillery station at Fort Sill Oklahoma in the summer of 1962. President John F. Kennedy attended the fire power demonstration at White Sands New Mexico.

Development

The Sergeant was originated during 1948 at JPL. Due to the large workload of the Corporal program rocket motor development for the Sergeant was transferred to the Redstone Division of the Thiokol Corporation. Due to the failure of the Sergeant program to develop rapidly the early Sergeant was terminated in April 1951.Cagle, Mary T., History of the Sergeant Weapon System, p 15, U.S. Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, 1972 Another Army missile program, the Hermes program had developed the Hermes A2 another solid fueled missile. The Hermes RV-A-10 (A2) was successful but not pursued with the motor serving as the inspiration for future solid rocket motors. JPL cautioned against making Sergeant a "crash" program as with Corporal. Sergeant missile development began January 1955. There were three basic steps planned: feasibility demonstration in 1955–1957, experimental development in 1958 and 1959, followed by final engineering in 1960 and 1961. The rocket motor was designed by JPL and built by Thiokol. Picatinny Arsenal was to supply the warhead and adapter. Ground Support equipment and vehicles were to be the responsibility of JPL. By fall 1956 it was decided to defer procurement of the Corporal III to development of the much more practical Sergeant. Flight tests began in early 1956 resulting in significant design changes, By July 1961 the Sergeant weapon system had numerous deficiencies including check out, repair ease, standby readiness, reliability and low temperature storage limits. Sergeant was to be ready on time but fell miserably short of meeting the goal of being the weapon originally envisioned. When compared to its predecessor, the Sergeant required less than of the ground support equipment, and could be fired within minutes rather than hours after arriving at the firing location. Sergeant was relatively simple to operate and maintain. The Sergeant was to carry the W52 (M65) nuclear warhead. The Sergeant had been considered for deployment with high explosive, fragmentation, biological and chemical warheads. A biological warhead, the M210 and a chemical warhead, the M212 were approved but never procured.

In service

Activated by the US Army in 1962 to replace the

MGM-5 Corporal The MGM-5 Corporal missile was an American short-range, nuclear-armed tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missile. It was the first guided weapon authorized by the United States to carry a nuclear warhead. A guided tactical ballistic missile, ...

, it was deployed in Europe and South Korea by 1963, and to German units by 1964. The Sergeant weapon system was to be replaced by the

MGM-52 Lance The MGM-52 Lance was a mobile field artillery tactical surface-to-surface missile (tactical ballistic missile) system used to provide both W70, nuclear and conventional fire support to the United States Army. The missile's warhead was developed ...

in the early 1970s but delays in the Lance caused it to remain in service. The last US Army battalion was deactivated in 1977. Sergeant Missile Systems were usually assigned to the

field army A field army (also known as numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps. It may be subordinate to an army group. Air army, Air armies are the equivalent formations in air forces, and ...

with the mission of "general support to a

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

." Operation of the Sergeant was recognized to be an interim stage in the development of battlefield missiles. It avoided the Corporal's liquid-fuel-handling drawbacks, but still requiring extensive setup and checkout before launch, together with a train of semi-trailer support vehicles. More advanced missiles, such as the contemporary

Blue Water Maritime geography is a collection of terms used by naval military units to loosely define three maritime regions: brown water, green water, and blue water. Definitions The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings hav ...

and later

Lance The English term lance is derived, via Middle English '' launce'' and Old French '' lance'', from the Latin '' lancea'', a generic term meaning a wikt:lancea#Noun">lancea'', a generic term meaning a spear">wikt:lancea#Noun">lancea'', a generi ...

, would reduce setup time. The Sergeant had a takeoff thrust of , a takeoff weight of , a diameter of , a length of and a fin span of . The Sergeant missile had a minimum range of , and a maximum range of .

Thiokol Thiokol was an American corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems. Its name is a portmanteau of the Greek words for sulfur () and glue (), an allusion to the company ...

developed the Sergeant rocket motors, and the Castor rocket stages derived from them, at the

Redstone Arsenal Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base adjacent to Huntsville, Alabama in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. A census-designated place in Madison County, Alabama, United States, it is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistica ...

near

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...

Derivatives

The Castor rocket stage, a Sergeant derivative, was used as the second stage of the

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

satellite launcher. Clusters of Sergeant-derived rockets (the "Baby Sergeant") were used in the second and third stages of the

Jupiter-C The Jupiter-C was an American research and development vehicle developed from the Jupiter-A. Jupiter-C was used for three Uncrewed vehicle, uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflights in 1956 and 1957 to test Re-entry vehicle, re-entry nosecones that were ...

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...

, as well as in the second, third, and fourth stages of the

Juno I The Juno I was a four-stage American space launch vehicle, used to launch lightweight payloads into low Earth orbit. The launch vehicle was used between January 1958 to December 1959. The launch vehicle is a member of the Redstone launch vehi ...

and

Juno II Juno II was an American space launch vehicle used during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was derived from the Jupiter missile, which was used as the first stage. Development Solid-fueled rocket motors derived from the MGM-29 Sergeant we ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

s, the former of which launched the first United States

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

Explorer 1 Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States in 1958 and was part of the U.S. participation in the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The mission followed the first two satellites, both launched by the Soviet Union duri ...

Operators

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

*150th Rocket Artillery Battalion (19641976) *250th Rocket Artillery Battalion (19641976) *350th Rocket Artillery Battalion (19641976) *650th Rocket Artillery Battalion (19651976)

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

*5th Battalion, 30th Field Artillery Regiment 19631972 Vicenza, Italy *3rd Battalion, 38th Field Artillery Regiment (19621974) Fort Sill *1st Battalion, 68th Field Artillery Regiment (19641970) West Germany *5th Battalion, 73rd Field Artillery Regiment (19631973) West Germany *5th Battalion, 77th Field Artillery Regiment (19631973) West Germany *3rd Battalion, 80th Field Artillery Regiment (19641970) West Germany *3rd Battalion,

81st Field Artillery Regiment The 81st Field Artillery Regiment is a field artillery regiment of the United States Army. History Pershing 1st Battalion, 81st Field Artillery Regiment The 1st Missile Battalion, 81st Artillery was formed at Fort Sill in 1963 and deployed t ...

(19631977) South Korea

References

External links