The May 12 test marks the fourth PrSM missile flight test and the first of three tests in an extended technology maturation and risk reduction phase. The INF Treaty prevented the development of missiles that ranged between 499 and 5,000 kilometers. The original intent was to reach a maximum of 499 kilometers, but America’s 2019 withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia has allowed the Army to develop the missile to reach ranges much farther. The missile is a priority program for the Army and is intended to replace the Army Tactical Missile System to play an important role in the service’s future deep-strike capability. Shorter ranges can be more difficult to execute, as the missile must go up and come down quicker, according to experts. The missile went through three flight tests last year during a technology maturation and risk reduction phase, ranging from 240 kilometers, 180 kilometers and 85 kilometers. Our test objectives included confirming the flight trajectory, range and accuracy from launch to impact as well as warhead lethality, HIMARS integration, and overall missile performance.” ”PrSM was fired from a launcher and it flew with the expected precision to the target area where it once again demonstrated a highly accurate and effective warhead event. The primary runways can accommodate all NASA and large aircraft, such as the C-17, C-5A, B-52 and Boeing 747.“We had impressive performance flying more than 400 kilometers in its longest range flown to date at the White Sands Missile Range,” Gaylia Campbell, Lockheed vice president of precision fires and combat maneuver systems, told a group of reporters directly following the test. A third runway allows pilots to practice transatlantic abort landings. Each measures 11,000m in length and 91m in width. The White Sands Test Facility has two operational, laser-levelled runways at White Sands Space Harbour. A family and morale, welfare and recreation organisation offers golf, bowling, skeet shooting, childcare and youth programmes. The missile range has an aquatic centre, auto skills centre, gymnasium, Italian café, museum, bowling centre and a frontier club. The Balfour Beatty Communities manages the family housing units at White Sands Missile Range. Other organisations located at the missile range are the 46 th Test Group, Second Engineer Battalion, the 746 th Test Squadron, Army Research Laboratory, Centre for Countermeasures and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The White Sands Test Facility tests and evaluates hazardous materials, spacecraft components and rocket propulsion systems. However, several of the original major facilities, such as missile assembly building and blockhouse, still exist. Most of the structures built in 1945 have since been replaced with modern facilities.

Some temporary buildings were also moved from Sandia Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the White Sands Missile Range. The main site was divided into four independent areas, allowing for the development of each individually. The original site plans were concluded in May 1945 and construction began in June of the same year. The Trinity site was announced as a national historic landmark in 1975.

The USS Desert Ship, a concrete blockhouse with shipboard condition simulations, was built in 1958.

The US Navy’s Viking No.1 rocket was launched to an altitude of 51.5 miles from White Sands Proving Grounds in May 1949. The first V-2 missile was launched in April 1946. The White Sands Proving Ground was sanctioned by the Secretary of War in February 1945. The Trinity (nuclear test) site was selected for missile research in November 1944. Major General G M Barnes played a major role in the establishment of the missile range. The plans for establishing the land-based test range were conceptualised in the fall of 1944 in the wake of Robert Goddard’s rocket research and the successful launch of the German-made V-2 rocket.

Us army white sands missile range