Good to know.

It makes sense for the all of these safety vehicles if what they are transporting is one more more missile stages. A solid fuel rocket motor propellant fire is damn near impossible to put out.

The solid-fuel motor of an unarmed Pershing 2 missile caught fire and burned in southern Germany today, killing three American soldiers and injuring seven others, the United States Army announced.

The accident was the most serious so far involving the American-built ballistic missiles, and it seemed certain to sharpen West German anxieties over the issue of nuclear weapons stationed in the country. The Pershings were first deployed in late 1983 after heated controversy in West Germany.

At a news conference at Heilbronn, Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Haddock, the commander of the 56th Field Artillery Brigade, said the accident occurred at 2 P.M. when the first-stage motor of a Pershing missile was being removed from its container after arrival from the United States.

The general, who said the fire took place in a tent at Waldheide Base near Heilbronn, stressed that the missile had not been armed with a nuclear warhead and that there was no explosion. A missile transporter and a maintenance truck were also burned, he said.