Sentinal and Safeguard, Part 1: The fastest thing off Earth

Well, so far on the Chant, we’ve seen all sorts of winged aerospace thingies, especially someone’s fascination with the Spitfire, and several people infatuated with the phlying brick with wings. But, well, my dad was, after he was a fighter pilot, a missile guy. He even wore a missile badge. And, of course, in my un-wondering youth, I never got to ask him about it. Missed opportunities, dangit.

The USAF Missile Badge
My dad wore one of these

So, I’ve lived around Vandenberg AFB, where I got to watch the occasional Minuteman go flying downrange. And maybe some others, but, well, I was a kid and firing missiles was, well, ‘normal’ for where I lived.  So flying rocket thingies were common enough to not really warrant a close look, plus ballistic missiles all kinda look the same from 15 miles away as they fly downrange.  Not like the authorities allowed us to go wandering all over the launch sites and ogle all the pretty, pretty toys.  (And the launch facilities at Vandenberg are separated by ridges/hills/visual terrain obstacles that discourage direct viewing from the quarters area of the base, and, well, gee, it wasn't my darned business, now, was it.  (More lost opportunities, dang it.)

And then the family moved to Kwajalein, where we got to watch what was left of whatever they were firing from Vandenberg come down to ‘land’ or splash down or whatever, though we lowly plebes (children, most civilians, heck most servicemen on the whole atoll) weren’t actually allowed to actually watch the splash portion. And, dang it, we also weren’t allowed to watch the Perry Cubmarines go and pick up the re-entry vehicles from their watery depths. Did I want to see them? Darned tootin! Did I get to? No. Duh. Dangit.

This is a Perry Cubmarine. Think ‘Yellow’ and you’ve got it.

from: https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/USN-1115000/USN-1115355.html

So, geez, missile badges and cubmarines, Beans, boooring, right?

Well, not so fast…

Because…

Where I lived…

We had…

A-frickin-B-to-the-M’s. Anti-Ballistic Missiles! Missiles that were actually designed to shoot down the reentry portion of Ballistic Missiles (boooo, hissssss) and protect our glorious country from the evils of the Evil Empire (more boooooo, hissssss.)

For Kwajalein Atoll, specifically Meck Island (on the Northeast section of Kwajalein Atoll) was a functioning launch and testing facility for the Sprint and Spartan ABM systems. Not just the wee missiles themselves, well ‘wee’ compared to a BM, that is. But to all the support structure for the aiming, firing, tracking, and whatnot of ABMs, to include radars, silos, maintenance facilities and such. We’re talking Project Safeguard, the pinnacle of US ABM programs that set the stage for ‘Aegis on Land’ and all the modern stuff, but this was back in the late 60’s and early 70’s so that makes it so much cooler.

Meck Island in 2009, Shooting and not scooting because it’s a friggin island
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meck_Island#/media/File:Delta_Mariner_at_Meck_Island_orig_(2009).jpg

A convenient map of Meck showing the Project Safeguard facilities
Notice the side view of the island, showing the control building with the pyramid structure on the corner
http://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents/ABM_Bell/ABM_Ch5.htm
the website ‘alternatewars.com’ is a long deep well of information to fall into.

And Meck in all it’s glory, blasting out the mighty Sprint
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sprint_missile_maneuvering_after_launch.jpg

Meck is an interesting island, been there on a ‘family field trip’ put on by the MWR (morale, welfare, recreation) troops so that we could all see the wonders of Meck. Which included a white-knuckle ride in a De Havelland Caribou, a fun, STOL transport flown by the US Army as the CV-2.

Funny looking plane, gauky, but I loved the ride

http://www.airvectors.net/avdhc4.html

But, you may ask, what is the point of this whole article? Well, this time it’s the Sprint. The mighty Sprint. No other designation, just ‘Sprint.’ Which says it all.

Imagine, standing on your roof, watching a glowing object come glowing down from a northeast direction (Vandenberg AFB usually) heading toward someplace 20 miles north-northwest (the center of the atoll’s huge lagoon-basin. Glowing, getting closer, glowing, getting closer, brighter, brighter… And suddenly a lance of fire juts upward from north of where you’re standing and strikes the glowing object, resulting in more glowing objects falling into the lagoon.

Lance of Fire? What? Are we using Lasers or Fusion Guns or something?  In the early 70's?  Nope. That was a Sprint launch and intercept. Saw it several times. As amazing and stunning the last time as the first time.

So, what’s a Sprint?  The Sprint was a cone-of-death fueled by testosterone and rage… Well, actually, the Sprint missile was… Getting ahead of myself.

Back in the 1960’s, some smart-asses at Martin Marietta decided they could make a high speed interceptor. The company got the contract in March, 1963, and tested the ‘Squirt,’ a micro version of the actual big missile, to prove the concept. And, well, it worked.

This is the Squirt mounted on a Nike Ajax booster. Little cone of death.
http://www.wsmr-history.org/squirt.htm

So, from the humble beginnings, probably from an alcohol, caffeine and nicotine binge, the Sprint was born. 

Standing 26’11” tall, with a maximum diameter of 4’5” tapering down to a needle point, the Sprint was designed to go over Mach 10 to a maximum range of 100,000 feet, to set off it’s W66 1kt nuke (or make a direct hit). It was a two stage missile, launched using a gas launcher to punt the missile out of the tube, then the 1st stage accelerated the missile at 100g for a massive 1.2 seconds to reach Mach 10ish, then the 2nd stage accelerated the upper section to glowing speeds in excess of Mach 10, causing plasma to form on the outside of the missile, necessitating a super-powerful guide beam from the ground in order to penetrate the plasma shell. Get that?  Going so darned fast the burning atmosphere could interrupt the guide signal.  

Cutaway of the Sprint.  Cone of DEATH TO BALLISTIC MISSILES!!!

from https://srmsc.org/cgi-bin/pds0010.cgi?B032001905x0

and what a non-nekkid one looks like.  Sexy, in a geeky way.

Sprint in it's launch cell, cross-section.

Here's the top of the launch cell.
That white dome is a fiberglass cover, the missile punches through it.

This isn't Meck.  This is one of the Safeguard Sites in North Dakota.
Which is up for sale.  Really.  Would I lie?
You can go to the below site and buy, buy, buy!
https://srmsc.org/cgi-bin/pds0010.cgi?B032001905x0

The mighty Sprint. 0 to Bazillion in nothing flat. And I saw almost direct kills.  People said ABMs wouldn’t work. I saw them working.

Here's a real-time video of a launch and intercept.

Oh, about the title, the Sprint was the terminal interceptor for both the Sentinel and Safeguard systems. Sentinel was an Army program for setting up ABM systems, consisting of control facilities and long-range and terminal interceptors, around major cities.  Safeguard was scaled back Sentinel, only protecting the missile fields.  More on that later.

My dad, an ex-pilot, USAF missileer, working with the Army on ABMs, while fitting in work with NASA on the space program and Navy Range Instrumentation Ships.  I came by my weirdness genetically.