This is going to be my third “Renwal” article. The first article was about the construction of the famous U.S Army Atomic Cannon “The Atomic Annie” . The second article was about the U.S. Army M55 8-inch Self-Propelled Howitzer “The Beast”. The 3th follow-up in this series is the U.S. Army Martin Lacrosse Field-Artillery Surface-to-Surface Guided Missile & Mobile Launcher. This is, no wonder, again an old Renwal kit.

History
The Lacrosse was in the mid 50s one of the newest U.S. Army surface-to-surface guided missile. It was extremely accurate because it is controlled by a forward guidance station which acts in a capacity similar to a field artillery observation post. Control by a forward guidance station enables Lacrosse to accurately hit a target without precise target data at launch site which other surface-to-surface guided missiles require.

The concept of the Lacrosse weapon system was developed out of the experience of the Pacific Campaign in World War 2, where U.S. troops had great difficulty destroying Japanese fortifications in caves and bunkers. The deadly accurate Lacrosse, with its surprise element based on a one-shot kill power, is an effective answer to the problem of destroying enemy strong points. Although originally designed for close troop support, its role has been expanded to include a general support, and the missile is capable of delivering numerous types of warheads, including nuclear. Lacrosse units are self-sufficient, highly mobile, and have a simple and efficient supporting system. All units are mounted on standard Army trucks and all the equipment can be airlifted to battle areas if necessary.

As an artillery weapon, Lacrosse units can keep the enemy under constant fire with deadly accurate missiles coming from many directions. Because of its mobility, it presents a difficult target for the enemy to find. Development of the Lacrosse missile program began in 1947. Two years later, however, the program was placed in limbo when the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a new missile policy giving the Army control of all guided missiles used in place of field artillery. The program came to a halt on 21 March 1950 when Secretary of Defence Louis A. Johnson approved of a new policy. Following the 29 June 1950 presidential order to commit ground troops to Korea, the Department of Defence began to take a greater interest in the development of battlefield guided missiles. On 31 August 1950 the Secretary of Defence transferred the Lacrosse program to the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps. Soon after this, in February of 1951, the Army issued The Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory of Buffalo, New York a formal research and development contract for the missile.

Development of the Lacrosse was extremely slow compared to the Honest John Rocket. It would take four years before the design had matured enough to even consider production. In April of 1955, because Cornell could not do production work, the Glen L. Martin Company (one of the pioneers in the American missile program, having developed the Viking, the Matador/Mace and the Vanguard) into the program and, on 1 June 1955, issued Martin the initial production contract for the weapon. The propulsion contractor was Thiokol Chemical Corp. and the guidance contractor was I.T. & T. Tooling and other production related problems delaying things further, preventing the first prototype Lacrosse missile, the XSSM-A-12, from coming off the production line until March 1957, and by 1958 produced the rate of nearly 280 per month. Testing with these missiles didn’t take so long, however, and on 22 July 1959 the first Lacrosse missile (the MGM-18A) became operational within the 5th Missile Battalion, 41st Field Artillery.

The U.S. Army had eight Lacrosse battalions in 1960 in Europe and the Far East. (The Lacrosse was also used by the Royal Canadian Army) For all the Lacrosse’S potentional, however, it had a number of shortcomings. Its high accuracy occurred only under the best conditions with experienced personnel at the controls. It never could hit a moving target. In the field it was a maintenance nightmare, a fact which greater diminished the missile’s reliability. Worst of all, however, because it was radio controlled, its guidance system could be jammed electronically, and the weapon made impossible to control. As a result of these shortcomings, the Army, in 1963, asked for funding to make improvements, funding which was never approved. So in the fall of 1963 the Army was forced to begin withdrawing the Lacrosse from service. The last missile was deactivated in Februari 1964. In retrospect, what can be said about the Lacrosse is that it was a great weapon in concept, but that technology was not yet ready to make it a practical weapon. The Lance Missile System replaced the Lacrosse in the end of the 60’s.

The “good” old Renwal kit
This Renwal kit of the Lacrosse Missile & Mobile Launcher dates, like all the Renwal kits, back to 1958. Scale 1:32 with over 200 parts. Kit number M560, price in 1958 $2.49. Normally spoken, all the Renwal kits 09-05 (16 kb)are rather coarse, normal for that time, and they have a lot of parts that are not detailed enough and that are not right. But, in a negative way, this Renwal kit breaks all the records. Why? Renwal had made a model of the M62 5-Ton 6×6 Wrecker Crane, kit number M559, price in 1958 $2.49. For “Renwal notions”, a reasonable correct and detailed model. Because of financial consideration they must have thought: “Can’t we release a second kit, based upon the M62 chassis & cab?”. I think a Renwal employer then must have got the “great” idea to release a Lacrosse Missile & Mobile Launcher. This Lacrosse Launcher-Truck does have a chassis & cab that reminds of the chassis & cab of the M62 Wrecker Crane, but is totally different, as well in measurements as being a model. And well, who would notice? And it’s cheap.

For clearness’ sake, the chasis & cab of the M62 Wrecker Crane is based on the M54 5-TON 6×6 Truck Series. And the chassis & cab of the Lacrosse Launcher-Truck is based on the M45 2,5-Ton 6×6 Truck Series. (The famous M35 Truck also forms part of this serie). The difference in weight is clear, immediately, but all measurements and some of the parts, are totally different! In general the M54 Truck Series is about 12% bigger than the M45 Truck Series. Moreover, the shape of the cab is different. Conclusion: The Lacrosse Launching-Truck is 12% too big!! In order to make the whole model look good, Renwal necessarily had to make the rest of the kit 12% bigger than it realy was (e.g. the launching-platform, the launching-arm and the missile). Now, the whole kit is wrong, not to speak of the details. Almost everything had to be corrected/detailed and/or replaced by new, self-made parts.

Some details:

• The Renwal kit excist of more than 200 parts, of which, after modification, only 50 are used
• Of the 1:35 M35 kit from AFV-Club (kit nb 3504) 55 parts are used, after modification
• Of the 1:32 M34 kit from Monogram (kit nb 6400) the bonnet (after widening) and the modified grill are used
• I used 15 parts of the Eduard 1:35 M35 ets-set
• I used 22 wheel-parts of the Adams 1:40 “Atomic Annie” (kit nb K153). These wheel-parts were exactly the right diameter, but too wide. I made them narrow, with difficulty
• Finally, I made 835 new parts myself. It took me 280 hours to complete this project
• The total amount of parts, including decals, is 1028

Fortunately, I’ve been collecting lots of photos and documentation (amongst other Technical Manuals), through the years. Without that, correct building hadn’t been possible. To be honest, I must say, that the building was a nightmare sometimes. But after finishing it, it does give an enormous satisfaction.

U.S. ARMY MARTIN LACROSSE FIELD-ARTILLERY SURFACE-TO-SURFACE GUIDED MISSILE AND MOBILE LAUNCHER

A) Primary role

• Artillery general support weapon
• Possible anti-tank application

B) Employment

• Allotted on a basis of three Bns per Cops

C) Targets

• Area type targets using abc, fragmentation type warheads
• Enemy strong points using shaped charge warhead

D) Guidance

• Preset and command
• A Missile Guidance Central takes over the control and guides the missile directly to the target

E) Propulsion

• A single solid propellant motor burning for 2.72 seconds

F) Range

• Missile range is 8,000 meters to 30,000 meters
• Guidance range is 500 meters to 5,000 meters using target ranging set data, and 500 meters to 20,000 meters using information produced in form of co-ordinates from external sources

G) Altitude

• Flies at 5,000 or 12,000 ft during mid-course guidance, depending upon range

H) Speed

• At motor burnout – 1,500 ft/sec
• Slows to 900 ft/sec during mid-course phace
• Impact 450 ft/sec

I) Warhead

• Atomic – variable yield
• T34ER shaped charge. Tests indicate penetration of 12-15 feet reinforced concrete
• HE fragmentation
• Chemical and bacteriological
• Carrying capacity of 500 lbs
• Practice warhead

J) Dimensions

• Length 19.2 ft.
• Diameter 20.5 ins.
• Wing span 9 ft.
• Tail span 4.7 ft.
• Weight 2300 lbs.
• Warhead weight 500 lbs.

K) System effectiveness<

• A CPE of about 10 meters at 5,000 meters guidance range
• A CPE of about 40 meters at 20,000 m meters guidance range

L) Basis load of missiles

• 26 SPECIAL
• 6 HE

M) Rate of fire

• Max rate – four missiles per hour per launcher
• Sustained rate – eight missiles per launcher per day

N) Timings

• Uncrating, warmup, checkout and assembled on launcher with five men – 16 to 20 mins
• Meter box checks, initial auto check with two men – five to eight mins
• MGC
  • Equipment and cables out – 4 mins
  • Warmup and test – 9 mins
  • Settings – 3 mins
  • Total – 16 mins
• TRS-setting up and reading with one man – five mins
• Remain in ready position – 24 hours
• Deployment period – 15 mins
• Out of action – 5 mins

O) Launcher

• Launcher is the XM-398-E1
• A standard US Army M45 2.5-ton 6×6 truck chassis serves as a launcher. In 1956 the price of a launcer was $71,870. Rail and tube assembly can be elevated from 0 degrees to 70 degrees and traversed 15 degrees to either side of the launcher line
• There were also some proto-launchers based on the Full Tracked Cargo Carrier M8E2

P) Launching equipment trucks

• The launcher XM 398 E1, with guided missile test set
• The crane truck M108
• The cargo truck M54
• The ORD 7 supply van M109