German Air Force missile wings when they launched missiles from White Sands Missile Range. The 85th U.S. Army Field Artillery Detachment was organized in Fort Sill in November 1966 and attached to 2/79th Artillery. The deployment to Korea was canceled and the 2/79th Artillery was deactivated. The Secretary of Defense assigned the Pershing weapon system to a Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) role in 1964 after a DoD study showed that the Pershing would be superior to tactical aircraft for the QRA mission. The German Air Force began training at Fort Sill. Each missile battalion was then authorized six launchers. In 1965 this increased to eight launchers, two per firing battery. By 1965, three U.S. Army battalions and two German Air Force wings were operational in Germany. The 579th Ordnance Company was tasked with maintenance and logistical general support for the Pershing artillery units in Germany. Missile Two Thiokol solid-propellant motors powered the Pershing 1 missile. Since a solid-propellant motor cannot be turned off, the missile used thrust reversal and case venting for a selective range. Splice bands and explosive bolts attached the rocket motors. The missile was controlled by an analog guidance computer using a ball-and-disk integrator and a control computer. As directed by the onboard computers, the bolts exploded and ejected the splice band. Another squib would open the thrust reversal ports in the forward end of the stage and ignite the propellant in the forward end, causing the motor to reverse direction. Testing found that the second stage would draft behind the warhead and cause it to drift off course, so explosive charges on the side of the motor opened the case and vented the propellant. The range could be graduated but the maximum was . Jet vanes in the motor nozzles and air vanes on the motor case steered the missile. The onboard analog guidance computer and the Eclipse-Pioneer ST-120 (Stable Table-120) inertial navigation system provided guidance. The warhead could be conventional explosive or a W50 nuclear weapon with three yield options— the Y1 with 60 kiloton yield, Y2 with 200 kiloton yield and Y3 with 400 kiloton yield; the conventional warhead was never deployed. Ground equipment The Pershing 1 firing platoon consisted of four M474 tracked-vehicles manufactured by FMC Corporation— by comparison, Redstone needed twenty vehicles. The transporter erector launcher (TEL) transported the two stages and the guidance section as an assembly and provided the launch