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This film "Home of Harpoon" was presented by McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company, which produced the Harpoon anti-ship missile beginning in 1977. McDonnell Douglas was a defense contractor formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and Douglas Aircraft in 1967; it was later acquired by Boeing. This film was made between the late 1970’s and 1980’s.The film was made in Berkeley, Missouri. The Harpoon remains in deployment today. It is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile. The AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile and later AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER are cruise missile variants. The regular Harpoon uses active radar homing and flies just above the water to evade defenses.
The film opens with USS Badger (FF-1071), a Knox-class frigate, firing the Harpoon anti-ship missile at 0:35. At :55 it strikes a target vessel and its warhead detonates. The "Home of Harpoon" complex is shown at St. Charles, Missouri at 1:22. The complex cost $21 million to build, and it contains management and support personnel, section-level assembly, missile assembly, and test, depot maintenance, and storage at 1:35. The facility is enclosed within a security fence, and an inner fence surrounds the ordnance building and magazines shown at 1:50. The narrator says that the building is equipped with an intrusion detection system that senses any opening of the doors during after hours at 2:10.
The film first dives into the section assembly building, where the Harpoon begins to take form at 2:21. Then, the sustainer section begins with the installation of fuel lines, associated valves, and the engine stark tank shown at 2:43. The wire bundle assemblies for interconnection between the sustainer component sections, along with the missile battery, pyrotechnics, the relay panel, and electronic control amplifier are shown at 3:05. Once the sustainer section is complete, the section undergoes an acceptance test at 3:40. The next step is to move to the fuel servicing area. A fuel similar to JP-5 is added at 3:52. Fuel loading accuracy is obtained by precision electronic load cells to weigh the sustainer shown at 3:55.
Control and guidance assembly sections are shown at 4:15. The completed missile sections placed on the MSTS testing machine for go/nogo tests are shown at 4:32. The U.S. Navy Weapons Stations at Concord, California, Yorktown, Virginia, and other allied government weapon stations, are equipped with missile subsection test sets which are identical to those used in St. Charles at 5:13.
After testing, the missile is transferred to the ordnance building. The building consists of an office building, Harpoon Missile-Body-building, the All-Up-Round building, and five remote storage magazines at 5:28. Office is separate from the assembly area with a long tunnel with two 90-degree turns at 6:05. The missile assembly building is equipped with pneumatically controlled tools for safety at 6:15. Within the HMB portion, the missile body is assembled and tested at 6:48. Tests are done by remote control, and monitored by closed-circuit television at 7:32. When completed, the missile is transferred to the All-Up-Round building, either as shipment as an HMB or for buildup into an AUR configuration at 8:12. Harpoons for submarines require a booster motor. The booster motor is shown being assembled at 8:24. The completed Harpoons are stored in the storage magazine before shipment at 9:03. Commercial trucks transferring missiles to naval stations at 9:15. The Douglas facility also contains a depot and repair facility at 9:42. A failure analysis is conducted here to determine which system needs replacement at 9:59. Film ends at 10:54)
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com