M8 Block 1 Redstone Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile #1002 May 17th 1958

These are 1/72 scale decals for the M8 Block 1 Redstone, missile #1002, launched by the 40th Field Artillery Missile Group, United States Army, on 17 May 1958 from Cape Canaveral, Florida — an early operational test firing of America's first nuclear-armed ballistic missile, conducted by one of the Army's pioneering field artillery missile units.

The M8 Block 1 designation identifies this as one of the earliest production-configuration Redstones, representing the initial operational standard of the missile before subsequent block upgrades refined its guidance, propulsion, and handling systems. The Redstone was a complex, liquid-fueled weapon — burning liquid oxygen and ethyl alcohol in a Rocketdyne A-7 engine derived directly from von Braun's wartime V-2 work — and the May 1958 test firing was part of the intensive program of operational evaluation and crew training required to bring such a sophisticated system to genuine combat readiness.

The 40th Field Artillery Missile Group was one of the U.S. Army's first units organized and trained specifically to operate large ballistic missiles in the field, part of the Army's effort to develop the doctrine, tactics, and operational procedures needed to deploy nuclear-armed rockets as a battlefield weapon system. Test firings like the 17 May 1958 launch were essential to validating not just the missile itself but the entire operational concept — the logistics, the launch procedures, the crew training, and the command and control systems that would allow the Redstone to function as a reliable deterrent and, if necessary, a combat weapon in the European theater.

A rare and specific operational test subject from the very earliest days of U.S. Army missile artillery — a companion piece to the 333rd Artillery Regiment operational markings Redstone in the catalog. Please allow some time for decal printing and shipping.