The Pershing II Weapon System[a] was a solid-fueled two-stage medium-range ballistic missile designed and built by Martin Marietta to replace the Pershing 1a Field Artillery Missile System as the United States Army's primary nuclear-capable theater-level weapon.

The Pershing 1a had a 400 kt warhead, which was greatly over-powered for the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) tactical role the weapon system filled.

Reducing warhead yield, however, required a significant increase in accuracy to match Pershing 1a's ability to kill hard targets like command bunkers.

The warhead was packaged in a maneuverable reentry vehicle (MARV) with active radar guidance and would use the existing rocket motors.

The NATO Double-Track Decision was made to deploy both the medium-range Pershing and the longer-range, but slower BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) to strike potential targets farther to the east.

The functions of the vehicle-mounted programmer test station needed for the older systems were consolidated into the Launch Control Assembly (LCA) in the Ground Integrated Electronics Unit (GIEU) on the side of the launcher.

Using radar maps of the target area, the Pershing II had an accuracy of 30 metres (100 ft) circular error probable.

The G&C also contained the Pershing Airborne Computer (PAC), the digital correlator unit (DCU) and actuators to drive the air fins.

This correlation process was performed several times during each of four altitude bands and continued to update the inertial guidance system until just before the impact.

[citation needed] Goodyear also developed the Reference Scene Generation Facility, a truck-mounted shelter containing the equipment required to program the missile targeting controlled by a DEC PDP-11/70.

During countdown operations, the cartridge was plugged into the launcher control panel to program the missile with targeting data.

[13] Soviet estimates put the system's range at 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) and they also believed that the missile was armed with an earth-penetrating warhead.

The West German government announced on 13 December 1985 that the US Army 56th Field Artillery Brigade was equipped with 108 Pershing II launchers across three missile battalions stationed at Neu-Ulm, Mutlangen and Neckarsulm.

[20] The deployment of Pershing II and GLCM missiles was a cause of significant protests in Europe and the US, many organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Again in Bonn in October 1983, as many as 500,000 people protested the deployment and a human chain was formed from the US Army headquarters in Stuttgart to the gates of Wiley Barracks in Neu-Ulm, the site of one of the Pershing battalions.

[26] Due to accessibility, the protests focused on the Mutlangen Missile Storage Area from Easter 1983 until the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987.

14 July 1983, Plowshare activists entered the Avco plant in Wilmington, Massachusetts and damaged equipment related to Pershing II and MX missiles.

[31][32] On 22 April 1984, eight Plowshare activists associated entered the Martin Marietta Aerospace plant in Orlando, Florida where they damaged Pershing II components and a Patriot missile launcher and poured containers of their own blood on equipment.

[33] Four Plowshare activists entered the missile storage area (MSA) at Schwäbisch Gmünd, West Germany on 12 December 1986 and damaged the tractor of a Pershing II erector launcher and hung a banner over the truck.

[34] On 11 January 1985, three soldiers of C Battery, 3rd Battalion, 84th Field Artillery Regiment were killed in fire at Camp Redleg, the CAS site near Heilbronn.

The 56th Field Artillery Command worked closely with local authorities, the press and representatives of the protest groups to keep them informed.

The Pershing II launcher was designed so that the cradle could be easily repositioned to handle the shorter missile airframe.

Pershing II Reduced Range (RR) was a follow-on concept that would have modified the launchers to hold two single-stage missiles.

One is now on display in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., alongside a Soviet SS-20 missile.

In 1991, Leonard Cheshire's World Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief sold badges of the group logo made of scrap material.

The then five living presidents, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were present at the opening.

Parker presented them each with a black ballpoint Duofold Centennial with the Presidential seal on the crown formed from scrap Pershing and SS-20 material, and engraved signatures of the presidents.