HISTORY - Page 25
Major problem areas covered in the tentative
November plans began to be resolved, in part, by
January 1956. During that month General Medaris
met with General Schriever of WDD and came to an
agreement on the allocation of NAA motors to ABMA.
Also within the month emergency construction was
started at the Cape in support of the missile flight
testing programs
33
.
Although progress had been made by concluding the
engine agreement, ABMA was not satisfied with the
situation as it applied then or would apply in the
succeeding years. WDD had allocation control from
the NAA source, and ABMA felt that it needed direct
contractual relationship in order for an engine to be
produced that would meet the needs of the JUPITER
system. General Medaris expressed these feelings to
General Schriever, and the latter replied that he did
not foresee any difficulty in the procurement of
engines for the JUPITER program through a military
interdepartmental procurement request (MIPR) to
WDD. General Schriever went on to say that he would
extend every consideration possible, "short of those
which might engender delays in the ICBM and IRBM
programs ..." The qualifying phrase bothered ABMA,
for it appeared to say that JUPITER had a second
rather than equal priority to the other IRBM. This was
not the only item that ABMA was unsatisfied with, as
the only contractors (NAA and Aerojet General) for
powerful thrust engines had their capabilities
saturated with requirements to fill orders for the four
major ballistic missile programs.
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33. JUP Dev Plan, FY 1958, 29 Sep 56.