Lance missile ends long Army career. First developed in the 1960s as a replacement for the Honest John and Sergeant systems, the Lance was designed to be a mobile field artillery tactical missile.

The Lance missile system is a hypergolic liquid rocket that mixes two chemicals, nitric acid with hydrazine, that spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other to produce thrust.

The Army-green 20-foot-long Lance missile, serial No. 4666, had been at the depot before, back in 1979, when workers gave it a fresh paint job.

The Lance weapons were first built in 1972, and were retired 20 years later in 1992. The missiles used a hydrozine propellant which made them especially combustible. The warheads ultimately served ...