June 30,
2008: One valuable benefit the United
States got from the Iraq war was six SCUD missiles, complete with launcher
vehicles and support equipment. For the last five years, the six SCUDs have
been at the Area 52 (also known as the Tonopah Test Range, which is about 100
kilometers from the more widely known, and similar, Area 51) in Nevada. Area 52
is a U.S. Air Force facility, and the six SCUDs are now being sent to the U.S.
Army Yuma Proving Ground for additional tests. Even while the SCUDS were being
scrutinized by the air force boffins, the other services were allowed to borrow
some of the systems for training exercises. In these cases, pilots, and even
ground troops, get an opportunity to look for, and identify a real SCUD system
under combat conditions. The Department of Defense wants to optimize sensors to
find SCUD systems under a wide variety of circumstances. The U.S. SCUDS are in
firing condition, although the government won't say if any have actually been
fired. There's plenty of space in Area 51 and 52 for something like that to
take place, and be kept from public attention.
The SCUDs
are actually World War II era technology. At the end of the war, the Russians
captured some of the German scientists who had developed the V-2 ballistic
missile. These Germans spent the next decade showing the Russians everything
they knew (or else) and developing an "improved V-2" which became the Russian
SCUD. The V-2 weighed 12 tons and had a range of 320 kilometers. The first
(1957) model of the SCUD weighed 4.4 tons and had a range of 150 kilometers. It
would land within 4,000 meters of the aim point, which was an improvement on
the V-2. Both missiles are mobile, but the smaller SCUD is more so. At the same
time the U.S. used its German V-2 scientists to develop the five ton Corporal
ballistic missile. This was deployed in 1955 (and replaced by the more advanced
solid fuel Sergeant missile in 1964). Both had a range of about 150 kilometers.