European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 6, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse By Charles Graham staff writer push Button warfare is cold reality on Hawk missile Sites. Inside cramped trailers crammed full of electronic gear missile men like those of Btry a 6th in 52nd arty stationed near Wuerzburg. Stand ready to push the Inch wide red Button that sends Hawk missile toward an enemy plane. These men never see the plane or even the skies overhead. Their War if it Ever comes will be fought electronically. In the meantime Btry a Crews at the site spend their Days going Over the complicated weapon system testing i for malfunctions and running firing problems. Normally 25 men come up from their billets at Emery Barracks for 24-hour shifts at this six launcher site takes a pulse acquisition radar continuous wave radar and a High Power illuminator radar to locate the target aim the missile and get it to its Mark. Set on a Hilltop across the main rive from Wuerzburg this radar array is hooked into a control Center which is i11 with Battery control Central acc which is the final station before the launchers themselves. The pulse acquisition radar scan medium High and medium altitudes while the continuous wave radar take sit from there Down to ground Zero explained it. Joe m. Dietzel jr., firing platoon Leader with the Battery. When a target is located by one of these the lieutenant continued the third radar system called High Power illuminator locks in on the target and guides the missile. The Hawk has a radar too which follows the beam reflected off the tar get by the illuminator Dietzel explained. Overseeing the actual launch which sends the 15-foot missile off its Antler like Perch is the Man in the acc a Small tin Shack with a Telephone and a Metal Box about the size of a Small tool Chest. The Box contains the switches which connect the missiles there Are three on one launcher with the illuminator radar and the control Center. The acc is also on the Telephone line to the three Man Crew at the launcher and with the control Center located Sev eral Hundred Yards behind him. He control Center is a dimly lit Mobile Van and a study in How to get a Large amount of electronic apparatus in to a Small amount of space. The two radar screens on this endow the Van said capt. James Jackson adjutant for the 69th up to which Btry belongs Are for the two firing sections. A Section has three launcher with three missiles each. That makes nine missiles that can be fired from each opposite them on another scope color fully marked with a multicoloured Grid is the master scope where the targets Are picked up and handed Over electronically speaking to one of the fir ing Section Scopes. It is on the Large Button and bulb filled boards of the firing sections that the missiles Are ignited and sent on their accurate Way. The Man who sits at the Board never sees his weapon or his enemy. Only the scope. The launcher selects the particular missile to be fired said Jackson that group of three numbered red lights on the Board signifies the missiles on one launcher. When one Hawk is fired its ight goes out Jackson added that in flight the mis Sile looks quite a bit like its namesake flying higher and ahead of the be often seen the Hawk go above the ii plane then swoop right Down on Page 12 c is photos by Merle Hunter telescopic sight on High Power illuminator enables pfc. Raymond Shoaff to align missiles Hawk missile Crew scrambles to launch pad for dry run on enemy target. Mobile acquisition radar unit icon Kie a trl b
