The Pershing II was a powerful long-range strategic nuclear missile of the last decade of the Cold War and, with a range of 1,100 miles, the longest-range weapon in U.S. Army Field Artillery history. Introduced in 1983 to replace the Pershing IA Missile System, it continued to use the existing missile but added a new terminally guided re-entry vehicle that could be guided to the target in place of the older ballistic warhead. Its margin of error fell from 1,200 feet to a 120-foot radius, allowing a smaller warhead to reduce intentional damage to surrounding areas. The two-stage, solid-propellant missile could maneuver to overfly a target and then return to attack it, and it could also perform evasive maneuvers against enemy countermeasures. The Pershing II Missile System was a decisive factor in the adoption of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1991, which banned long-range missile systems, and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev credited its deployment by President Ronald Reagan with helping bring the Cold War to an end.

Photo: James Hulse

Lawton, Oklahoma · USA