major instead of a captain; battalions were commanded by a colonel; and the brigade was commanded by a brigadier general. Pershing 1a was deployed with three U.S. battalions in Europe and two German Air Force wings. Each battalion or wing had 36 mobile launchers. The constitution of West Germany prohibited owning nuclear weapons, thus control of the nuclear warheads remained in the hands of the U.S. Army. During peacetime operations, a portion of the Pershing 1a assets were deployed on the QRA mission. The remainder would be conducting field training or were maintained in kasernes awaiting alert. The system was designed to be highly mobile, permitting its dispersal to clandestine sites in times of alert or war and was deployed at distances greater than 100 km behind the forward edge of battle area or political border. Owing to its mobility and setback, Pershing was considered one of the most survivable theater nuclear weapons ever deployed in Europe. The primary mission in the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe scheduled plan took one of two forms: peacetime or an increased state of readiness called the period of tension. Different levels or techniques of tasking were used for these mission forms. The peacetime Quick Reaction Alert role required that for each battalion or wing, one firing battery or a portion thereof would be combat alert status (CAS) on a permanent hard site, covering assigned targets. In peacetime the four batteries of each battalion rotated through four states or conditions of alert readiness, the highest being that of the CAS battery. The purpose of this rotation was to assume the CAS status, to share the burden of CAS responsibility, to provide time for field tactical training and equipment maintenance, and to give ample leave and pass time to personnel without adverse impact on operational requirements. During periods of increased tension, the firing batteries of each battalion were deployed to previously unused field tactical sites. At these sites, they assumed responsibility for coverage of all assigned targets. During the transition from the peacetime to full combat status, coverage was maintained on the highest priority targets that were assigned to the peacetime CAS batteries. Once all firing batteries were at their field sites, the firing elements of the battalions were deployed by platoons, which were then separated from each other geographically to reduce vulnerability. The platoons then moved to new firing positions on a random schedule to