Ping-Pong was a battlefield reconnaissance rocket developed by Lockheed-California – later the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company – for use by the United States Army. Intended to give battlefield commanders the ability to gain photographic data on enemy locations, it reached the flight-test stage before being cancelled.

Development history

In 1964, the United States Army called for proposals for a rocket that could be launched by Army units towards the suspected location of enemy units, with a camera carried on board the rocket taking pictures of the target area, before a second retrorocket motor, located in the nose of the rocket, fired to return it to its point of launch for analysis of its reconnaissance pictures.^[1] Proposals were received from Lockheed-California, Goodyear Aerospace, the Chrysler Corporation Missile Division, and Beech Aircraft; the Lockheed proposal, named "Ping-Pong", was funded for development.^[2]

Ping-Pong was conventional in appearance, launched from a tube 4 inches (100 mm) in diameter.^[3] A cruciform fin arrangement provided stabilization; the fins were mounted on a sliding assembly, allowing them to shift to the opposite end of the rocket's body when the retrorocket was fired to reverse the rocket's direction for the return flight.^[1]

Flight testing of Ping-Pong took place at Rosamond Dry Lake in California during the second half of 1964.^[1] The tests were considered to be successful,^[4] with the rocket being reported as "the free world's only round-trip ballistic missile";^[5] however, follow-up studies did not result in further development.^[3]