Corporal E

American short range ballistic missile. Experimental version of Corporal Missile. Nitric acid/Aniline-Furfuyrl alcohol propellants.

The US Army ORDCIT program to develop ballistic rockets as potential weapons began with the Private-A and Private-F, continued with the Wac Corporal, and then the Corporal-E, before finally becoming a separate weapon development program. The first test flight of the Corporal-E, on 22 May 1947, was a complete success. In September 1949, after the firing of Corporal-E Round 4, the Missiles and Rockets Branch of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance requested Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a guidance system for the improved version of the Corporal missile. During the next two years, while work on this new guidance system was being carried out, seven more Corporal-E rounds were fired at White Sands Proving Ground. On January 18, 1950, the Chief of Ordnance directed Jet Propulsion Laboratories to accelerate the Corporal-E research test vehicle program and reorient the project to a guided missile weapon system. On August 11, 1950, the Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Research and Development proposed that the Army undertake development of a modified version of the Corporal-E, the Corporal I. The Corporal-E was terminated as a specific project.