| Country: |
United States of America |
| Alternate Name: |
MGM-25a |
| Class: |
ICBM |
| Basing: |
Silo based |
| Length: |
29.87 m |
| Diameter: |
3.05 m |
| Launch Weight: |
99790 kg |
| Payload: |
Single Mk 4 RV |
| Warhead: |
Nuclear 3.75 MT |
| Propulsion: |
2-stage liquid |
| Range: |
10000 km |
| Status: |
Obsolete |
| In Service: |
1961-1965 |
Details
The MGM-25A Titan 1 missile was an intercontinental-range, silo-based, liquid propellant ballistic missile. It was designed as one of the first missiles that could be launched from a hardened silo to offer protection to the missile against a Soviet strike, though that capability did not emerge until the Titan 2. The Titan 1 consisted of two stages with different diameters and had no wings or fins. Unlike the Atlas it had two distinct stages, opposed to engines strapped on the side of the main stage, making it the first true two-stage missile developed by the United States. The primary contractor of the Titan ICBM program was Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin).
The Titan 1 missile program was a strategic asset designed primarily for counter-value targets. Though the accuracy of the system was a significant improvement over the previous Atlas design, it was not sufficient for effective use against hardened targets. As a result the missile presumably would have been targeted at major population centers, along with important non-hardened military targets. Due to a limited number of ICBMs at the time, the bulk of the nuclear force of the US was placed upon B-52 bombers which would have been prepared to engage numerous lesser targets. However, the crucial civilian and military centers would have been attacked by the US ICBMs, which could not have been intercepted. As the Titan I could only have been fired from surface-based launch facilities, it was highly vulnerable to a Soviet first strike.
The Titan 1 had a range of 10,000 km (6,214 miles) with an accuracy of 1,400 m CEP. This accuracy is obtained from an inertial guidance system with radio command updates from ground computers making flight corrections. It deployed a single Mk 4 Reentry Vehicle (RV) which carried a W-38 3.75 MT nuclear warhead. The missile had a first-stage diameter of 3.05 m, a second-stage diameter of 2.44 m, a length of 29.87 m and a launch weight of 99,790 kg. The missiles had a two-stage liquid propellant design, and reached a speed of 25 times the speed of sound by the time the engines cut off.
The MGM-25A Titan 1 missile program entered development during the mid- to late-1950s, at the same time as the Thor, Atlas and Minuteman 1 programs. Its first test flight occurred in 1959 with the entire series of tests being completed by 1960. It entered service in 1961. It was retired in 1965 in favor of the Titan 2, an upgraded version of the Titan 1.(1)
Footnotes
- Duncan Lennox, Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 46 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2007), 545.
