— Ch. 1 · Origins And Development —
MGM-31 Pershing.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
George Bunker, president of the Martin Company, paid a courtesy call on General John Medaris at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama during 1956. This meeting sparked the creation of a missile plant near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Martin Company opened its Sand Lake facility in Orlando by late 1957 with Edward Uhl as vice-president and general manager. The U.S. Army began studies for a ballistic missile with a range of about 300 miles that same year. Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson issued the Wilson Memorandum later in 1956 to remove all missiles with ranges over 200 miles from the Army's inventory. The Department of Defense rescinded this memorandum in 1958 allowing development to proceed under the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. ABMA selected seven companies including Chrysler, Lockheed, Douglas Aircraft, Convair, Firestone, Sperry-Rand, and Martin to develop engineering proposals. Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker faced pressure from his home state of Michigan to award the contract to Chrysler. General Medaris persuaded Brucker to let the decision rest entirely within the hands of the ABMA. After a selection process led by General Medaris and Dr. Arthur Rudolph, the Martin Company received a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and production. Martin's quality control manager Phil Crosby developed the concept of Zero Defects which enhanced system reliability. The first launch of the XM14 test missile occurred on the 25th of February 1960 at White Sands Missile Range. A second launch from the tactical transporter erector launcher took place on the 26th of July 1960 designated as P-06.
Technical Architecture