The U.S. MGM-52C Lance was a U.S. Army tactical surface-to-surface nuclear missile of the Cold War that entered service in June 1972, replacing the Honest John artillery rocket, which had entered service in 1954, and the Sergeant Battlefield Support Missile, of 1962 vintage. It carried nuclear or conventional high-explosive warheads to attack targets such as artillery, armored forces, missile sites, troop concentrations, and railroad yards. This Lance was carried and launched from a zero-length launcher that was towed by a two-and-a-half-ton truck or carried beneath a helicopter. Its Rocketdyne P8E-9 rocket motor burned two liquid propellants that ignited spontaneously when mixed in the combustion chamber and burned for 1.5 to 6 seconds depending on the range to the target. Guidance came from DC-Automet, directional control-automatic meteorological compensation, which injected fuel into the exhaust stream to control the missile's flight. Its nuclear warhead was a "dial a nuke" type that could be varied up to 10 kilotons, while its conventional high-explosive warhead was the Honeywell M251, which distributed 636 BLL-63 bomblets over an area 2,600 feet across. The missile was 20 feet 3 inches long, weighed 3,365 pounds, and had a range of 75 miles with a nuclear warhead and 45 miles with a conventional warhead.

Photo: James Hulse

Lawton, Oklahoma · USA