111131 I i ~ Gl ding on iry Group '. . !FT Guided Missiles FOR THE FUTURE By GROUP CAPTAliV II. R. FOOTTIT "New things are seldom con sidered coolly and objectively." -Marshal of the RA.F S'ir John S lessn r. F INALLY the news filtereJ home. The reJ coats h:.ld suffered a stinging setback. This was to wards the close of the eighteent h ce n tury and the British troops. Juring a campaign in fnJia. haJ bee n thrown back by the massed fire o f a nati ve " rocket co rps." fmm ed ia tely parlia ment voted mone y for the de1·elop ment of this new wea pon . AnJ Sir William Co ngrel'e plu ngeJ into a program that, by 181 7, produced a family of rockets ha1·ing r:rnges from 2,000 to 3,000 yards, anJ ca rrying all the varialions in artillery ammunition that were then in use. Today, the nations of the \,Vestern World are busily follow ing a simi lar feverish course. But now it is the guided missile. With the man-h ours and money that are being poureJ in to these new Je1·elopments. anJ the rapiJ march of technology. there is no Joubt that the missile is here to stay. E1·en in Canada this ha s been recognizeJ . And the Defence Research Board's ~ARDE establishment is busy design mg a nd de1·eloping ;i m odest air-to air miss ile, the Veh·et G lo1·e. to RCAF requirements. • Exaggerated Picture: But the whole missile picture has been clouded by exaggerated time scales, and mislead ing publicity pushed out by the pro ponents of "push button" war. Even our own missile, like all others. has its limitations. [n other words anv fully developed missile, just like a ;1 add ing machine, will do one job well -the job it was designeJ fo r. Bu t it is not omnipotent an d it is not infallible. Thoug h withi n the channel of its particular usefulness it mav he a powerful weapon. Still. ther.e is no doubt that we in Canada, as others June, 1955 ha1·e Jone. will h:ll·e to expand our missile design. JeYelopment anJ pro duction fac ili ties. For the final reck oning in any future w:i r will hinge heavi ly on ;1 wide 1·ariety of special ized guided missiles . Wi th the wide swath of publicity giYe n to these we:1pons of ou r age. it is sometimes Jitticult to decide ·' what" they will Jo, and '·when" they will do it. For example. C. C. Furnas. Director ot the Cornell .-\ero na ut ical Laborato ry. said rece ntl y. ·'No ma tter how complex they beco me. guided missiles are essentially stupid ." HoweYer. he is tr ying to Jri1·e home the point tha t, in his anal ysis. the missile will not repbce the man in battle in the next lull' centu ry. Mur he is quite n:adv 1n :1dmit tint 111 is si les ",lo m:111y ck1·cr :1nd wonderl.ul things :rnJ :ire rel:1t i,·ely sek,t i1·c in thei r :Ktion.'' .-\ t alm ost the sa me time Cem:r:il The Rvan Firebird guided missi le, first te.s te cl in 1950, -is an air-to-air weapon whil'h is controlled by its launchin;.: aircraft to within a cer tain proximily of its tar:,:e t. where upon it becomes se lf-directi n;.:. The Fire bird's launching weight is ahout 600 lbs. Donald L. Pu tt. forme r com 111 :1nder of the U.S .. -\ir Researc h & Develop ment Command. told the American Rocket Society in New York that as missiles approach the peak of their JeYelopment. .. . . . the mili ta ry :iir plane. as we know it now, will eYe nt ual ly be relegated to :1 mere logistical ve hicle." And Sir John Slessor has written in his book. Strategy for the Hl est, "At le:isr some manned fighters will be wi th us fo r many yea rs to co me, .111J I ca nnot 1· isualize the d isappear ance of air crews from the air fo rces of rhe 11·orld in the fo reseeable future." Matter of Viewpoint: U ndoubted ly :ill these eminent experts are right. It all depends on the viewpoint. If \\'L'. co mpare the dc,tronic "hr:1i11 .. or a miss ile sys tc111. ll'ith the slo11· hut powerful :md co111p:1Ct hum:111. :is Dr. Furnas did. then missi les are indeed stupid, and will undoubtedly remam 27 USAF';. Martin Matador i;. da,,ed a, a ..;urfat·e • to - ~urfac<- / air - to - surfal'f" ;:-uidC"cl 1nissile and is now in opera tional scr\'ice ,,. a pilotle;.,. ,ict homher. One i, hein;!: di~pla)'ecl at thi s )'<'ar· , CITF. so. !\ s one ncuropsychiatris t. \:Va rrcn i\lcCullouch, has opincJ, "I f a cal culator were hu ilt to fu lly si mu late the 11 cr1'c connect ions of the human hrai11. it ll'ould require a skys '.Ta )·c r to house ii. the poll'cr of Niaga ra Fall s to run it. and a\l the wate:,s of the Niaga ra to cool it. " On the other hanJ. (;eneral Pu tt has peereJ aheaJ anJ mo1·ed a long ll'a)' Jown the tin'.e scale . His offc11- s1n· anJ defe!1sil'e ai r forces arc organized into missile squadrons. But he ha sn't got riJ of th e hum:111 hcing. I le has only relegated him 10 a ground posit ion 11,hcrc he can still put a guid ing hand on the contro ls of these powerful wea;rnns. Sir John Slessor, howc,,er. has taken an in termed iate s:and. He has pan of hi s human material 011 the ground controllin_!.! missiles sq ua d rons anJ pan in the air in the familiar lighter . Thus we can sec that e1Tryone is really say ing the same thing: " l'owcr iul guided missiles arc coming. Their exact timing in the fuwre cannot he pinpointed . Yet as they do come, they will graduall y change the whole: mode of war. All th ese miss iles will have I imitations. Th ey wo n't rep la ce the human being as the pri me lighting force, th ey will only relegate the l1111na11 hrain lo another position in the scheme of things." And when we sit hack and con tem pla te it , th is is exactly ll'ha t the longbow, th e gun, tl1c ,,:111 1u, 11. the 1:111k. :111d the ai r ;il .111 c !i .1\ t· d o :1c 11 1 :il l !H .~ 0 ! 1t · \\ ·;1r .... They ha1-c merely chang~d the face of war, ll'h i!c man, the kain behind the mechanism, has merely reposi tioned himself to make the best use of these prod un s of hi s 011'11 111ge11u ity. Slow Development: To ,,isualize 1hc ,,ar10us u1111pl icatio11s connected wllh these missiles of the future it is neccs s:try to pigeon hole them into technical and op: rational categories. From th e technical side , as we ha,,c seen, the u11 ,c;uiJed, ballistics rocket, suffered th rough nearly I '50 years or desultory d::1-clopmen t a f tcr Congrc1·e 's work. Then, in \:\'orld Vlar II it ca me hack ll'ith a ,,enge:1nce. Man-carried ba zookas, fir ing small rockets. dec imated (;erman ta11ks: Hawker ''Typh oo ns" ll'ith under-" ·ing rocket installations blasted (;erman road traflic: while the (;crmans put so me pre-set gu idance in to a -t6 foot liquid rocket missile and hammered London with their in famous \ ' -2s. \~' hile thi s pre-wa r rocket dcl'clop- ment ll'a s proceeding apace. th e llriti sh, .-\meri cans. Ccrmans anJ ot hers. had carefully tried out 1,ilot lcss airplanes. Using a rad io-con trolled auto pilot they had success fully taken and landed such craft. Some of thi s work was even going on during \\' orld War I. But it was 11 01 un til after the last war that th e full impact of addin g guidance ICI ldlistic or winged mi ssiles reall y st ruck home. i\nd on ce it did, th e mi ss iles race was on. Today, between these rwo technical extremes, the: guided rocket and the guided pilotless :i irpl:me. there are all m:11111 cr of mi\ \ilc:, tha t are corn ing i1 ,:" th,. .\ llicd .;rst' :1:1k or hcir l!,.'. tested on the stands. or a re still 011 the drawing boarJs. And c:1ch or these tec hnica l config urati ons has hccn designed for a set oper:i'tional role. . Teglec ting homing torpcJocs. and other maritime guided weapo ns, these missiles are made as air -10-:1i r, :1i r-to surfacc, su rf:ice-to-a ir. a11d surf:1n- to surface weapo ns. Complex Requirement: T o gc 11cral ize the 011cra1io1~al aspects. while keep ing in mind all the p:1ssihlc 1cd 111icd ,·onfigurations, it is :1;1parent th :1t the missile lau nc her mav he f·ixed or mol'ing. depending 011 whet he r the mi ss ile is ground or air fi red. :ind the t.irget ma y he lixeJ or mc11,i11 g. dc pcnJing on whether it is a 1·chi clc or :1 s:at ic in stall:i tion. .'\n d between the :11 ta cker and the targc: th ere is re: il1m of three-di111ensional sr ace. To make matters more complex. the target 111aY el'C n ha1·e so me i111·isihle electronic defensil'e net spread around it. tha t 111:iv co nfu se and misJiren th e missile so it explodes h:m nlcsslv a s:1fc dis t ance all'ay. It is oh,,ious then. ll'ith all thnc ,,aria hlcs in the missile equa tion. there will nc,,er he ju st one omnipotcnl guided missile in the military ar~cnaL but :i whole air fo rce of mi ss iles each designed to be set ofT from , a specific launcher lo cope with a speci fi c ta rget. and each designed to carry out its task within certa in lim it~ of ran ge. target rnanoeul'erahilit y. a11J th e like. The Martin Matador, which now stands g uard in Europe as a sur fa : c , to-surface tact ica l missile ( an d essen tiall y a pilotless bomber) , the Hughes F:dco1 1. ;1 gu ided air- to-air rocket. and th t' '\' ik c. ;1 ~11 idn ! .11i: i-:1irn:1f1 ro, '..t·t . ■ GAS tur , . A !\AVAL DEVELOPME~T is the US"l's Sparro w air-to-air i:-uidcd mi, ,.ile, shown he re nn :!cr the winl,!s of a Doul!la, F3D S k~·nil,!hl . Companie, a"ol·ia tcd with this projec t include Doul!las, Sperr~· and Ra~·theon Mfi:- . Co. Thc S par row i, ro!'kct propcllcd and e mplo,-s hcam 1,!Uidance with tcrminal hmninl,!. are some of the first fledglings of thi s ne\\' air power, and just a few of the 1·a riations th:it \\'ill e1·entu:1lly he fo rth com111g. Designed for the Job: Each of these missiles. like all others. has been cc11 work lll,: hard with hi s compute r. announce~ 1 : tha t he had coll<:cted fa vorable tail = winds that migh t enable us to make Montreal direct, cutting out the Goose refuelling stop. At first Peter hesitates. deferring a decis ion until we can get a better check on our fuel state, but at 11 :30 there is no daub: and Peter decides to fly direct to Montreal. ~AIRCRAFT BROKERS Event ually Cape Harriso n comes into sight dead ahead, and beyond the Cape are Labrad·or 's snow-co1·ered barren lands. The triangle of Goose ·s runways passes 24.0()0 feet below ou r nose. We Hy the ainvay to Se1·en Islands-stil l 01·er snow-cove red fo rest -on along the broad sweep of the St. Lawrence, past Quebec. south to Rougemount. The fan m::i rker wink s ol'er the beacon ::inJ we a re cle::ired into Dorl'al. O1·er \,fontreal. gi1· ing s~me of us ou r first glimpse of ::i North .\ merican city. and the re straight ahead is Dorval. We take a wide sweep around and touch down :tt 17 :O-, GMT. 12 :05 local time. .\s we taxi officials aboard. to a halt a group of T C.-\ walk forward and come TCA has received its sixt h Vickers Viscount. GUIDED MISSILES ( Co ntinued from ('t1gc- 30 ) Tt is therefore appare nt th:lt the design. de1·elopment a nd production of missiles systems requires the -back ing ot a skilled engineering team. It will take us time to build up this team in Canada so that it can :1de quately bring fort h these vital weapons for ou r armed sen·ices. For we must recognize that. in spite of their limi tatio ns. missi les will be the spearhead of any fut ure war. In the ai r force alone we wi ll ha1·e men. and we will ha1·e ai rplanes. But fo r both to do an effect ive joh. ll"e must have missiles. To time our Ca nadian indust ri:i! program-which will st retch into years-so that there is :1 gr:1dual feeding in ot top r:11e missile systems will req uire cool and objecti1·e thought. This 1s no i::1sv task . For. as Sir John Slessor lus said . new things. such as missiles .1ri: seldom co nside r~d in such a n :ttmo sphere. = = • CANADA ' S CLEARING HOUSE FOR THE SALE OF AIRCRAFT ;, 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 r · .:: • All Types of Aircraft = Accepted For Listings. = • Contract and Working Arrangements With All North American Aircraft Dealers. • Buy or Sell - Consult S TERLI NG AERONAUTICAL SERVICES LIMITED Island Airport, Toronto 2 = = = = = = = = = = = = ;.1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 i7- PRECISION SHEET METAL WORK TOOL & JIG Design & Manufacture • WELDING Spot Welding-125 KVA 3 phase Inert Gas & Oxygen • Skilled craftsmen for Assembly & Sub-assembly of Aircraft components. • R.C.A.F. Approved. ALLIED ENTERPRISES LIMITED 279 PRINCE ST., MONTREAL * University 6-6777 157

Guided Missiles for the Future

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