MGM-31 Pershing - Legacy

Legacy

The INF treaty only covered the destruction of launchers and rocket motors. The W-85 warheads used in the Pershing II missiles were removed, modified, and reused in B61 gravity bombs. The Pershing II guidance section was re-used in the Coleman Aerospace Hera and the Orbital Sciences Storm II.

The INF Treaty allowed for inert Pershing II missiles to be retained for display purposes. One is now on display in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., alongside a Soviet SS-20 missile. Another is at the Central Armed Forces Museum in Moscow, Russia, also with a SS-20. A number of inert Pershing I and Pershing IA missiles are displayed in the U.S. and Germany.

Scrap material from the Pershing II and SS-20 missiles has been used in several projects. Zurab Tsereteli created a sculpture called Good Defeats Evil, a 39-foot (12 m), 40-short-ton (36,000 kg) monumental bronze statue of Saint George fighting the dragon of nuclear war, with the dragon being made from sections of the Pershing II and SS-20 missiles. The sculpture was donated to the United Nations by the Soviet Union in 1990, and it is located on the grounds of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

In 1991, Leonard Cheshire's World Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief sold badges of the group logo made of scrap material. Parker created a series of pens with a Memorial Fund badge made of scrap missile material, with half the proceeds going to the fund.