Place of origin United States Used by United States Army | In service 1959–1964 Wars Cold War | |
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Type Short Range Ballistic Missile Designer Johns Hopkins University, Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory | ||
The MGM-18 Lacrosse was a short-ranged tactical ballistic weapon intended for close support of ground troops. Its first flight test was in 1954 and was deployed by the United States Army beginning in 1959, despite being still in the development stage. The program's many technical hurdles proved too difficult to overcome and the missile was withdrawn from field service by 1964.
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Development
The Lacrosse project began with a United States Marine Corps requirement for a short-range guided missile to supplement conventional field artillery. The navy's Bureau of Ordnance issued contracts to both the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in September 1947, for the study of design aspects pertaining to this mission.
The missile system was named the Lacrosse because it employed a forward observation station which had a direct view of the target. The forward observation station was mounted on a jeep and after the missile was launched control was passed to the forward station for final guidance to the target. Hence the name Lacrosse which is how the game of lacrosse is played with the ball being passed to players closer to the goal.
In 1950, the project was transferred from the navy to the army's Ordnance Corps and Redstone Arsenal, pursuant to a policy giving the Department of the Army responsibility over all land-based short ranged weapons. Cornell and Johns Hopkins continued with the project, with the former having primary responsibility for guidance systems design.
In 1955, the Glenn L. Martin Company was awarded contracts to participate in research and development and production. Martin would take over much responsibility for the project, as Cornell moved to work on expanding the missile's capabilities beyond the original requirements (particularly in the area of airborne control, funding for which was discontinued in 1959).
Early testing began in 1954 and production prototypes were available the next year. The difficulties encountered by the project are illustrated by the protracted design and testing periods, with the missile not entering into service until July 1959. Problems included reliability concerns and difficulties with guidance, particularly susceptibility to ECM jamming of the guidance signals.
In 1956, the Federal Telecommunications Laboratory began work on a different guidance system, known as MOD 1, which would have improved Lacrosse’s performance with regards to electronic countermeasures. MOD 1, however, was terminated in 1959, causing the United States Marine Corps to withdraw their participation in the project. The first units received Lacrosse in 1959, though the system would continue to be in need of development and refinement.
Nearly 1,200 Lacrosse missiles were produced and deployed at a cost of more than US$2 billion in 1996 dollars (excluding the cost of the nuclear warheads).
Service
The first unit to be equipped with Lacrosse was 5th Battalion, 41st Artillery, based at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In total, eight battalions would be equipped with Lacrosse, with most going to Europe, except one to Korea and one retained by the Strategic Army Corps.
Designations
The original navy project was assigned the designator SSM-N-9. When transferred to the army, the program became SSM-G-12, which changed to SSM-A-12 after minor changes in the army's designation scheme. When adopted into service, the weapon system was referred to as M-4 and only gained its MGM-18A designation months before being declared obsolete.