Follow-On-Test (FOT) of Polaris A-2 Missile

[George Murray]

Around Patrol 3 or 4, we engaged in an FOT involving the actual launch of 4 missiles. One of the 4 failed upon transfer to "Internal Power." The problem turned out to be that the battery had been previously activated at some prior time and therefore was expended.

[Stan Tribble]

Looks like MTRE did its job! What MTRE was onboard then. When I got there in '79 it was MTRE Mk 7. I work for Lockheed Martin and it is interesting that MTRE is up to Mk 11 and is essentially nothing more than a single VXI card and it resides in what they call the Missile Interface Box. There is one MTRE card and one MIB per tube.
I remember one of our MTRE techs got so tired of MTRE 7 failing its daily System Verification Test (9000 test) that when he caught it on a good day he would run several of them so he could have good printouts in advance if he needed them for future days!

[George Murray]

It was MTRE 6. MTRE 6 was located in MCC on the port side and it was what we called the Tactical MTRE. MTRE 7, on the other hand, was located on the starboard side of MCC and was used primarily for missile testing. MTRE 6 was limited to a simple "GO/NO GO" while MTRE 7 would actually give voltage and resistance readouts.

If my memory is correct, the problem occurred because during some previous WSRT, the MTRE 6 operator was late noticing that the switch was in the wrong position for a WSRT and repositioned it during the interval that a missile was going through the "PREPARE" sequence. That was over 40 years ago, so don't hold me to the details.

Stan Tribble said:

Looks like MTRE did its job! What MTRE was onboard then. When I got there in '79 it was MTRE Mk 7. I work for Lockheed Martin and it is interesting that MTRE is up to Mk 11 and is essentially nothing more than a single VXI card and it resides in what they call the Missile Interface Box. There is one MTRE card and one MIB per tube.
I remember one of our MTRE techs got so tired of MTRE 7 failing its daily System Verification Test (9000 test) that when he caught it on a good day he would run several of them so he could have good printouts in advance if he needed them for future days!

[Stan Tribble]

Yes - I stand corrected. I always knew that MTRE 6 was tactical and MTRE 7 was non-tactical, but was thinking that MTRE 7 made the GO-NO GO decision on battery voltage, but you are right - it would have been MTRE 6. I also remember that MTRE 7 was sometimes referred to as the most tactical non-tactical piece of equipment on the boat!

George Murray said:

It was MTRE 6. MTRE 6 was located in MCC on the port side and it was what we called the Tactical MTRE. MTRE 7, on the other hand, was located on the starboard side of MCC and was used primarily for missile testing. MTRE 6 was limited to a simple "GO/NO GO" while MTRE 7 would actually give voltage and resistance readouts.

If my memory is correct, the problem occurred because during some previous WSRT, the MTRE 6 operator was late noticing that the switch was in the wrong position for a WSRT and repositioned it during the interval that a missile was going through the "PREPARE" sequence. That was over 40 years ago, so don't hold me to the details.

Stan Tribble said:

Looks like MTRE did its job! What MTRE was onboard then. When I got there in '79 it was MTRE Mk 7. I work for Lockheed Martin and it is interesting that MTRE is up to Mk 11 and is essentially nothing more than a single VXI card and it resides in what they call the Missile Interface Box. There is one MTRE card and one MIB per tube.
I remember one of our MTRE techs got so tired of MTRE 7 failing its daily System Verification Test (9000 test) that when he caught it on a good day he would run several of them so he could have good printouts in advance if he needed them for future days!