Missile BGM-109G Gryphon

The BGM-109G Gryphon was the ground-launched version of the Tomahawk cruise missile, deployed by the US Air Force during the last decade of the Cold War and eliminated under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty). It was developed in response to the Soviet mobile MRBM and IRBM ballistic missiles deployed in Eastern Europe, notably the SS-20 Saber. An air-launched version, the MRASM (Medium Range Air to Surface Missile), did not progress beyond the project stage.

The missile was powered by a turbofan engine, with a solid-fuel rocket booster assisting the launch. Ejected from its canister, it flew for about 13 seconds under solid-rocket propulsion: the tail fins deployed at 4 seconds, the air intake and wings at 10 seconds, the turbofan starting at the end of the boost phase. Flight was entirely subsonic and followed a very low-altitude terrain-hugging profile, with guidance provided by TERCOM (terrain contour matching). Accuracy after more than 2,000 km of flight was about 30 metres. Flight time reached more than two and a half hours at the limit of its range, which confined the missile to fixed targets. Unlike the other Tomahawk versions, the BGM-109G carried only a W84 thermonuclear warhead, with no conventional capability. The W84, derived from the W80, was a variable-yield weapon of 0.2 to 150 kt.

The system was organised in flights of sixteen missiles, spread over four transporter erector launchers (TELs) each carrying four canistered missiles, and two launch control centres (LCCs) each manned by two launch officers. TELs and LCCs were towed by MAN KAT1 8×8 all-terrain tractors. A flight numbered 69 personnel and 22 vehicles, including a flight commander, 19 maintenance technicians, a medical technician and 44 security personnel. In garrison, the missiles were stored in a hardened area called the GAMA (GLCM Alert and Maintenance Area). In times of tension, the flights dispersed to previously reconnoitred classified sites, where they dug in, camouflaged the vehicles under netting and protected themselves with intrusion detection radar.

Crew training began on 1 July 1981 at the 868th Tactical Missile Training Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, with field training near Fort Huachuca; testing was conducted at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Initial operational capability was reached in 1983. Six European bases hosted the system: RAF Greenham Common and RAF Molesworth in the United Kingdom, Florennes in Belgium, Woensdrecht in the Netherlands (where no missiles were actually deployed), Wüschheim in West Germany and Comiso in Italy. Each site came under a Tactical Missile Wing comprising a missile squadron and a maintenance squadron. The deployment prompted demonstrations in Europe, notably by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Withdrawal from Europe began in 1988 under the INF Treaty, which banned the entire category of ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 km. The units were returned to Davis-Monthan AFB and the missiles destroyed or converted into display pieces in 1991. Eight inert examples survive.