History & Highlights

Redstone Arsenal Then and Now

Redstone Arsenal has been the nerve center of the Army’s missile and rocket programs for over 60 years. The installation’s 38,000 acres are a combination of two adjoining Arsenals built in 1941 to make conventional and chemical munitions during World War II.

In October 1948, when Redstone was first designated the home of Army missiles and rockets, employment had dropped at Redstone from a WWII peak of more than 19,000 to a little-used post with a work force of a few hundred men and women. Most of its buildings and manufacturing operations had been placed in a standby status.

However, because of its large, available space and empty buildings, the Army selected Redstone as the place to consolidate its then just-beginning rocket business. In 1949, the Army began hiring technical and professional people for the new mission. As the buildup continued, the Army moved rocket experts from other locations in the United States to Redstone Arsenal, including one group that was already famous: Dr. Wernher von Braun and more than 100 of his colleagues. During WWII, they had developed the first ballistic missile for the German Army. After the war, the Army put them under contract and brought them to the United States.

The period of the 1950’s was a decade that brought the Army at Redstone worldwide acclaim. The Army scientists and engineers at Redstone worked hard to develop missiles such as the Corporal, Sergeant, Redstone, Jupiter, Pershing, Nike Ajax, Nike Hercules, Nike Zeus, Hawk and many others.

Simultaneously, between 1956 and 1960, the Army missile team at Redstone pioneered many of our Nation’s first achievements in space exploration. The space mission had been given to the Army under special orders from the Secretary of Defense. It was between January 31, 1958, and July 1, 1960, that the Army achieved some of its most outstanding successes for the U.S. space program.

For example, Redstone experts placed four Earth satellites into orbit, including the Free World’s first satellite, EXPLORER I; launched the Free World’s first lunar probe and first solar satellite; launched three primates into space, two of which were recovered alive; initiated effort on a 1.5-million-pound-thrust booster being designed for a lunar exploration vehicle named SATURN; and began work on the launch vehicle that would carry the first Americans into space.

In 1960, the Army’s space team at Redstone was transferred by presidential order to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, formed in 1958. The Army’s subsequent transfers of personnel, buildings, and programs to NASA became the nucleus of the Marshall Space Flight Center, which still operates on the Arsenal.

By the 1980’s, the Army missile team at Redstone Arsenal was building in large numbers many of the weapons developed in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Gulf War in the early 1990’s gave the Army its first opportunity to fire in combat weapons systems such as the PATRIOT, Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). U.S. troops used these weapons, as well as HELLFIRE, TOW and HYDRA-70, with great effect against Iraqi munitions during Operation Desert Storm and again a decade later during Operation Iraqi Freedom. By this time, the Army’s missile and rocket inventory contained some of the most technologically superior weapons the world had ever seen.

The Army commands now operating on the post and in neighboring Huntsville are the successors to the early Army missile organizations here. Although Redstone Arsenal started as an Army installation, it has evolved into a diverse international, federal, and Department of Defense partnership that makes Team Redstone unique. More than 70 different organizations and more than 34,000 employees now call this federal installation home.

Today, partly as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 decisions, several Army commands and other military organizations are headquartered on post. These include the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC), the installation’s first four-star command; two of its major subordinate commands, the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) and the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command (USASAC); and other major sub-elements such as the Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA). Working closely with these organizations are the Program Executive Office (PEO)-Aviation and the PEO-Missiles and Space; the Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center (AMRDEC); as well as the Redstone Test Center (RTC). Also on post are the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT).

Other military organizations located on Redstone Arsenal are the Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC), a crucial element of the Defense Intelligence Agency; the 2nd Recruiting Brigade; the Army Contracting Command, the South Central Civilian Personnel Operations Center (SCCPOC); and the Fox Army Health Center (FAHC). So are elements of the Defense Property Disposal Service. In addition, the installation is home to non-DOD agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC); the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Hazardous Devices School; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Explosives Training Branch. Although not located physically on post, the Arsenal also provides support to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Huntsville Center and the NATO Medium Air Defense Management Agency in nearby Huntsville. The Ordnance Munitions and Electronics Maintenance School (OMEMS) will transfer to Fort Lee, Va., as part of BRAC 2005, where it will become part of the Sustainment Center of Excellence in 2011.

About 48,000 vehicles pass through the Arsenal gates each weekday. In an average month, about 8,000 visitors enter the post to do business with one of the government activities sited here. About 350 military and DA civilian families reside in quarters on post.

There are about 2,000 Soldiers assigned to the many Army commands and activities at Redstone Arsenal or in Huntsville. Together those agencies employ about 14,000 government civilian workers. The combined Team Redstone payroll is nearly $1.7 billion annually. The local procurement in Huntsville is $2.5 billion and for the State is $2.6 billion.

Army buildings, equipment, and utilities at Redstone have a replacement value of about $2.8 billion dollars. Together with similar facilities of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center they make the total government property investment at the installation in the neighborhood of $4.4 billion dollars.

A new initiative ongoing at Redstone Arsenal is an enhanced use lease project known as Redstone Gateway, which is being developed by Corporate Office Properties of Maryland and Jim Wilson and Associates of Montgomery in partnership with Redstone Garrison and the City of Huntsville. The project, located on 468 acres along both the west and east sides of Rideout Road near Gate 9, will provide 4.6 million square feet in office, retail and hotel space once it is completed. Currently, the first of 59 buildings is under construction and set to open in December 2011. The project, which will take about 15 years to complete, will include 48 buildings located just outside Redstone Arsenal on the western side of Rideout Road and 11 secured buildings inside the Arsenal gates on the eastern side of Rideout Road. The project will also involve the expansion of Rideout Road and a route change for the western section of Goss Road.

In 1993 and 1995, the Army chose Redstone as the top medium-sized post in the United States and as a finalist for four consecutive years in the annual competition to select Army Communities of Excellence.

For almost seven decades, Redstone Arsenal has been an essential part of the surrounding Huntsville community, which celebrated its bicentennial in 2005. The Army’s presence helped transform a once quiet, little-known town in North Alabama, into “Rocket City, U.S.A.” while the city’s unwavering support for the organizations, programs, and personnel assigned to the post have helped to keep the installation on the technological cutting edge of aviation, missilery, and space.

Aviation

Army aviation’s roots can be traced to the Piper Cub, the first Army aircraft, which began testing at Fort Sill, Okla., in 1941. Following that testing, three L-4 “Grasshoppers” were placed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger for ferrying to North Africa during the Allied invasion in November 1942. By the end of the North African campaign, a pattern for the employment of Army aviation had been fairly well formed, and commanders began to see the value of the L-4 in combat.

In June 1950, Korea became a household word and,three years later the 24th Infantry Division’s aviation section began flying combat missions and evacuating the sick and wounded from the battlefield.

In December 1961, the US Army began operating the Vertol CH-21 in South Vietnam to provide transportation for Vietnamese Army troops.

Since those early days with the Piper Cub, Army aviation has shown a phenomenal growth of air mobility. Before Vietnam, even though the helicopter was an accepted part of the Army division inventory, the main body of troops still moved by truck or on foot. In Vietnam, troop movements by truck or on foot were not only impossible but, even if the roads existed, truck and foot movements would not have been desired. It was the helicopter that enabled the advantage to be wrested from the Viet Cong.

Army aviation, therefore, is the perfect bond between a battlefield need and technology. From the L-4’s observation capability, to the H-13 “Sioux’s” rapid evacuations in Korea, and to the mobile firepower contributions of “Hueys” and “Chinooks” in Vietnam, Army aviation has responded to a variety of complex missions.

It was advancing technology that first introduced aerial observation to the U.S. military. And it was the development of aviation throughout two world wars that forced repeated changes in the way wars are fought.

The future will not be any different. That same strength of Army aviation, excellence of performance and dedication to duty, will embody Army aviation as the future unfolds.

Past Aviation Systems

Army Mule               Grasshopper                Scout
Avrocar                   Harrier                    Seminole
Baron                      HelloCourier               Seneca
Beaver                     Hornet                     Sentinel
Bird Dog                  Hummingbird         Shawnee
Buffalo                    Huron                          Sioux
Cadet                       Mescalero          Sioux Scout
Caribou                   Mohawk               Super Cub
Cayuse                    Mojave              Super Navion
Cheyenne                Navion                         Tarhe
Chickasaw              Osage Twin              Choctaw
Otter                       Ute                  Convertiplane              Pawnee                   Vertiplane                     Djinn            Piper Cub                Vigilant                        Fleep
Raven                     Voyager                       GEM
Reliant X-Wing

Rockets and Guided Missiles

The origin of today’s rockets and missiles is difficult to pinpoint, but the scientific principles on which they are based are as old as man. The first missile was probably a rock. Thrown or hurled through the air, a rock traces a curved flight path through the air in the same way as a missile or rocket does until it hits its target on the ground.

Historians believe that a form of rocketry, or principles of rocketry, was established as early as 3000 B.C. Major advances in rocketry came out of their development for military uses.

The roar of a rocket, regarded by many persons as a symbol of a new era, was first heard centuries ago. Although more like a fireworks display rocket, the Chinese used rockets in the battle of Kai-Feng-Fu in 1232.

They sounded again as the French used them against the English at the Battle of Orleans in 1429. They also flew during the Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648; the battle of Panipat, India, 1799; and the siege of Copenhagen, 1807.

Under heavy attack, the American Soldiers defending Fort McHenry survived a rocket bombardment in one of the nation’s earliest wars. Francis Scott Key wrote of the “rocket’s red glare” in his “Star Spangled Banner” during that attack in 1814.

The U.S. Army first used rockets in the war with Mexico more than 100 years ago. However, with the advent of rifled barrels and accurate artillery, interest in rockets declined. By 1870, only rockets carrying lifelines to distressed ships were in common use.

Early pioneers in rocket warfare, William Congreve, an Englishman, and William Hale, an American, made significant contributions to rocket development. In 1926, Professor Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern American rocketry, launched the first liquid-fueled rocket and laid the foundation for a technology that would eventually take man to the moon and beyond.

Although rockets saw extensive use during both world wars, the rocket-powered guided missile did not materialize as an effective weapon until the final days of World War II. At their Peenemunde research facility, the Germans developed a ballistic missile, the V-2 (V stood for Vergeltungswaffe or vengeance weapon). Hundreds of the missiles were fired against targets in England, France, and Belgium.

Fortunately, the war ended before the V-2 attacks could reach their total potential for destruction. The leading members of the Peenemunde research team surrendered to American forces, and later accepted the Army’s offer to continue work at Fort Bliss, TX, under the code name “Operation Paperclip.”

At Fort Bliss, and later at Redstone Arsenal, swords were figuratively beaten into plowshares, as the rockets, which had been used as weapons of war, became the tools that enabled scientists to explore the upper atmosphere.

Past Rocket and Missile Systems