MGR-1 Honest John

Honest John on a launch vehicle

Honest John, August 1961 in Hawaii

The 762 mm field missile MGR-1 Honest John was an unguided military short-range missile ( Short Range Ballistic Missile , SRBM for short ) of the Cold War era from US American production. It was named after a famous Indian of the 18th century.

description

There were two versions of the Honest John: The MGR-1A (M31), in service from 1954, and the MGR-1B (M50), which was used from 1958 and was declassified on July 9, 1982.

Both versions were nuclear weapons capable of a warhead of up to 50 kt .

A total of 7089 Honest John MGR-1B (M50) were produced from 1960 to 1965. From 1964 the US National Guard was given the weapon system until it was decommissioned in 1982. The successor system was the MGM-52 Lance .

For the missile there were nuclear warheads with an explosive force of 5, 10, 20 and 40 kT under the sovereignty and in custody of the USA, in whose use NATO allies could participate in the context of nuclear participation . In addition to conventional TNT warheads, special heads were also planned with which large amounts of propaganda material or leaflets could be fired. After appropriate trials, however, this approach turned out to be inefficient for operational information ; Therefore, tethered balloons were used .

Stationed in Germany and Central Europe

MGR-1 Honest John of the Bundeswehr rocket artillery

MGR-1 Honest John of the Bundeswehr rocket artillery, 1969

In 1959 the rocket artillery battalions 140, 240 and 340 were set up in the army of the Bundeswehr , equipped with Honest John and subordinated to the three corps ( I. Corps in Münster, II. Corps in Ulm, III. Corps in Koblenz). In 1961, with the help of these battalions, the formation of the rocket artillery battalions began in the artillery regiments of the divisions , each with 3 Honest John batteries and an accompanying battery. In the 11 rocket artillery battalions of the divisions (excluding the 1st Airborne Division ), from 1970 (with the introduction of LARS (110 SF) ) until 1982, only the 2nd battery was equipped with four Honest John rocket launchers.

The rocket artillery battalions should be able to fire not only conventional ammunition in the event of a nuclear war, but also nuclear warheads with their Honest John . This should enable the corps or division command to crush enemy forces close to the front or in the rear without having to resort to air support . In accordance with the concept of nuclear participation , the nuclear warheads provided for this purpose always remained in US custody; only the delivery systems were operated by German soldiers. From an elevated alert level, the US units should then be placed under the German corps. When the Honest John was retired, nuclear participation in these battalions also ended.

In Germany, Honest John was fired with training warheads as part of combat shooting at the Grafenwoehr , Baumholder , Bergen-Hohne , Munster and Putlos military training areas. Because of the great distance of around 17 km, shooting was mostly from outside firing positions into the area, but also from place to place (Bergen-Hohne / Munster). The accuracy of the MGR-1B (M50) was under good conditions (wind speed, measurement possibilities of topographic points) with a CEP of 230 meters.

Carrier vehicles

The following vehicles were used to transport and fire the Honest John:

• M33 (transport trailer, launch pad)
• M46 (transport truck)
• M289 (M139 transport truck with launch pad)
• M329 (transport trailer)
• M386 (M139 transport truck with launch pad)
• M405 (transport trailer)
• M465 (transport vehicle)

Technical specifications

system	MGR-1A (M31)	MGR-1B (M50)
length	8.30 m	7.92 m
diameter	760 mm	760 mm
span	2770 mm	1370 mm
Weight	2640 kg	1960 kg
speed	Mach 2.3	Mach 2.3
Range	24.8 km	48 km
drive	Solid rocket ; Starting thrust : 400 kN	Solid rocket; Starting thrust: 382 kN
Warhead	Nuclear warhead , practice warhead, fragmentation warhead or sarin - bomblets	Nuclear warhead, training warhead, fragmentation warhead or sarin bomblets

Web links

Commons : MGR-1 Honest John  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Honest John in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
• 50 years of nuclear weapons in Germany

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Globalsecurity.org: Overview of the early missiles (engl.) (Consulted on October 7, 2019)
2. ↑ Redstone.army.mil: Timeline of development, use and decommissioning of the MGR-1 / Honest John (engl.) (Consulted on October 7, 2019)
3. ↑ Peter Blume: Rocket artillery of the Bundeswehr HONEST JOHN - SERGEANT - LANCE - LARS 1 . Jochen Vollert-Tankograd Publishing, Erlangen 2010, Technical Description, p. 7 .
4. ↑ Outline image http://www.peterhall.de/srbm/bundeswehr/rakartbtl-div/rakartbtl6.html
5. ↑ The rocket artillery battalion 92 of the 1st airborne division (= 9th division) was set up under Lieutenant Colonel von Preller in Großengstingen in November 1961 and, after being moved to Philippsburg in 1964, was subordinated to the 12th Panzer Division and renamed the rocket artillery battalion 122 .
6. ↑ Peter Blume: Rocket artillery of the Bundeswehr HONEST JOHN - SERGEANT - LANCE - LARS 1 . Jochen Vollert-Tankograd Publishing, Erlangen 2010, Einsatz, p. 8 to 10 .
7. ↑ Peter Blume: Rocket artillery of the Bundeswehr HONEST JOHN - SERGEANT - LANCE - LARS 1 . Jochen Vollert-Tankograd Publishing, Erlangen 2010, Die Raketenartillerie der Bundeswehr, p. 2 to 3 .
8. ↑ Peter Blume: Rocket artillery of the Bundeswehr HONEST JOHN - SERGEANT - LANCE - LARS 1 . Jochen Vollert-Tankograd Publishing, Erlangen 2010, Einsatz, p. 10 .
9. ↑ Classix: Artillery Shooting with Howitzer, Rockets and Mortar (1970) on YouTube
10. ↑ MGR-1 Honest John | Weaponsystems.net. Retrieved April 24, 2017 .