Hard Mobile Launcher
The Hard Mobile Launcher '' is a mobile radiation-hardened truck transporter erector launcher designed to facilitate the transport and launching of the MGM-134 Midgetman missile.
Overview
It can travel at speeds of up to on the road and it also has off-road capabilities. The vehicle also has a trailer mounted plow which can be used to dig the launcher into the earth in order to help protect it were it within the vicinity of a nuclear detonation.The vehicle weighs a total of, with a length of over and it has the capability to transport objects weighing up to. It is powered by a Rolls-Royce Perkins diesel engine which produces and controls all 8 wheels using an electro-hydraulic transmission.
Design and testing
Two teams were assigned to develop a vehicle.Caterpillar developed a tracked tractor while Martin Marietta was the system integrator and also built the Mobility Test Bed missile trailer.
A second team consisting of Boeing Aerospace and Electronics' Loral Defense Systems Division built an eight wheel drive vehicle and trailer.
The Air Force selected the Boeing-Loral prototype. Several vehicles were delivered to the US Air Force by December 1986. The Air Force tested the vehicle until 1991, after which development of the MGM-134 missile project ceased, leading to the project's cancellation.
NMUSAF Museum acquisition
Following the cancellation of the MGM-134 missile project, the last of the engineering models was acquired by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Ohio in 1992. It is no longer on display and was given to the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office.The Hard Mobile Launcher at Wright Patterson Air Force Base was auctioned and sold for scrap in July 2015. It was broken up in September 2015.