When the HAWK System was being put together, there was old technology and new technology involved. The Pulse Acquisition Radar was merely an update of the radar that was introduced by the Coast Artillery in World War II, with the latest on IFF/SIF circuitry. But HAWK's mission was to defend against the low flying enemy aircraft. Which meant that the target selection, tracking and subsequent destruction of the enemy aircraft required a new type of radar that could discriminate against features on the ground (mountains, tall buildings, etc) and moving targets. The radar would be required to find the moving target(s) against a backdrop of stationary objects. Enter the Doppler Principle, otherwise known as Continuous Wave Radar - the CW Acquisition Radar and the High Powered Illuminator Radars. The Range Only Radar was added later but I am not sure if it was pulse, CW or a combination thereof. So all of the "science fiction" part of the HAWK System was given a lot of attention by the primary contractor, the Raytheon Company.
The Launcher Area was much simpler to design. It had to be mobile, it had to have a fairly rapid rate of fire, and there was a requirement for rapid reloading of a launcher that had fired its three missiles. Enter the Loader-Transporter, a tracked vehicle (like a tiny tank) with a Jeep engine and a hydraulic system that was a pipe fitters nightmare. I think whoever put this piece of equipment together had received his training from Rube Goldberg, famous for unusual contraptions that often worked just fine.
Each HAWK firing battery was to have three of these items: One for each firing section and one for the Assembly Section. It was not possible to tow a launcher with missiles on it. It was not possible to travel very far (like 2 Kilometers) with three missiles on the Loader-Transporter. So, at CSMO (for those who have forgotten that clarion call it meant "Close Station, March Order"), each section unloaded the missiles from their launchers and loaded them onto truck-mounted pallets. Not just any truck. These had to be M-36 Extra Long Wheel Base Two and a Half Ton Trucks. I would have loved to be present when that operation was first undertaken. It was not possible to index the loader with the truck-mounted pallets, so the transfer of missiles could not be done.
Some PFC figured if we can get this truck to run up a ramp or hill, the angle would be corrected and the mission accomplished. Well, just by coincident each XLWB M36 without a pallet came with two ramps which would be affixed to two sets of holes near the lowered tailgate of the truck. They used "Quick Release Pins" which were never very quick. The ramps were so the loader could be backed onto the bed of the XLWB M36 when ready to travel. Then the ramps were removed and placed (slid) under the loader where it sat on the trucks bed.
Leaving the ramps in place after unloading the loader, a truck with a pallet and three missiles would run up that ramp about eight feet and the loader would then have an easy shot at indexing the pallet and taking off the missiles. And that is how it was done. The maintenance of the loaders was given to the Missile Assembly Section. Most of those technicians, myself included, received about two minutes "familiarization" with the loader by driving it around the blacktop at the LAM Dept at Fort Bliss. Our DS/GS Ordnance Support unit on the other side of the Main River from Emery Kaserne put out a bulletin advising the batteries that they did not have any responsibility for the maintenance of the loader.
Oddly, this piece of equipment was remarkably free of glitches and gremlins. They always worked as intended. Fortunately, somewhere up the chain of command a decision was made to allow HAWK units going to the field for training purposes to take only one Loader. When the Loader was in the bed of a truck, with its engine off, its overall silhouette was too high to meet "Bern Tunnel Specifications" which meant you could not drive this truck through many tunnels or pass under lots of bridges (in Europe). To solve this dilemma (the same PFC) noticed that with the indexing forks fully elevated, the missile transfer arms were lowered, and in effect the overall silhouette was lowered sufficiently to meet Bern Specs. But you had to have a soldier riding in the Loader who would start the engine, energize the hydraulics, and raise the indexing forks as necessary. Once the Loader engine was turned off, hydraulic pressure faded and the indexing arms would slowly come down. This resulted in the higher overall silhouette.
Finally, in Battery A there was a Loader Operator named Lonnie Porter, one of our fine young black soldiers. CPT Logan challenged Porter to become an expert on all facets of the Loader. Lonnie interpreted this to mean that the Loader assigned to him was his own personal vehicle. So he took to adding subtle decorating features: A sheepskin seat cover; blue dots on the brake lights, red plastic handlebar grips on the tread control, and painting every bolt that was visible a nice, crisp titty pink. If he thought he could get it past the gate guard he would have gone to town with it, I'm sure.
This last observation. A loader would have made a great dune buggy.
