Editing Project Nike (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed|section|date=April 2011}}
[[File:Nike Ajax Marion, KY PA250202.JPG|thumb|upright|left|Nike Ajax located in [[Marion, Kentucky]]]]
Project Nike began in 1944 when the [[United States Department of War|War Department]] demanded a new air defense system to fight [[jet aircraft]] that flew too high and fast for anti-aircraft guns. Two proposals were accepted: [[Bell Laboratories]]' Project Nike and [[General Electric]]'s  [[Project Thumper]], a much longer-ranged, collision-course system that eventually delivered the [[BOMARC missile]].<ref name="Development">{{cite book |last1=Kendrick |first1=Gregory |title=First Line of Defense, Nike Missile Sites in Illinois |date=1996 |publisher=Rocky Mountain System Support Office, National Park Service |location=Denver, Colorado |pages=19–26 |edition=1st }}</ref>

Bell Labs' proposal would have to deal with bombers flying at 500&nbsp;mph (800&nbsp;km/h) or more, at altitudes of up to 60,000&nbsp;ft (20,000 m).
At these speeds, even a supersonic rocket is no longer fast enough to be simply aimed at the target. The missile must "lead" the target to hit before it runs out of fuel. By this point, the US had considerable experience with lead-calculating [[analog computer]]s, starting with the British [[Kerrison Predictor]] and a series of increasingly capable U.S. designs.<ref name="Development"/> 

But the missile and target cannot be tracked by a single radar, increasing the complexity of the system. For Nike, three [[radar]]s were used. The acquisition radar (such as the AN/GSS-1 Electronic Search Central with the [[Western Electric AN/TPS-1B Radar|AN/TPS-1D]] radar) searched for a target to be handed over to the Target Tracking Radar (TTR). The Missile Tracking Radar (MTR) tracked the missile by way of a [[transponder]], as the missile's radar signature alone was not sufficient. The MTR also commanded the missile by way of [[pulse-position modulation]]: the pulses were received, decoded and then amplified back for the MTR to track. Once the tracking radars were locked, the system was able to work automatically following launch, barring any unexpected occurrences. The computer compared the two radars' directions, along with information on the speeds and distances, to calculate the intercept point and steer the missile. The entire system was provided by the Bell System's electronics firm, [[Western Electric]].

The [[McDonnell Douglas|Douglas]]-built missile was a two-stage missile using a [[solid-fuel rocket|solid fuel]] [[booster rocket|booster stage]] and a [[liquid rocket propellant|liquid fueled]] ([[IRFNA]]/[[UDMH]]) [[staging (rocketry)|second stage]]. The missile could reach a speed of 1,000&nbsp;mph (1,600&nbsp;km/h) and an altitude of 70,000&nbsp;ft (21&nbsp;km) and had a range of 25 miles (40&nbsp;km). The missile contained an unusual three-part [[Payload (air and space craft)|payload]], with explosive [[fragmentation (weaponry)|fragmentation]] charges at three points down the length of the missile to help ensure a lethal hit. The missile's limited range was seen by critics as a serious flaw, because it often meant that the missile had to be sited very close to the area it was protecting.<ref name="Development"/>

[[Consolidated Western Steel]] produced the launcher loaders. [[Fruehauf Trailer Corporation]] produced the trailers.

After disputes between the Army and the Air Force (see the [[Key West Agreement]]), all longer-range systems were assigned to the Air Force during 1948. They merged their own long-range research with [[Project Thumper]], while the Army continued to develop Nike. In 1950, the Army formed the Army Anti-Aircraft Command (ARAACOM) to operate [[Artillery battery|batteries]] of anti-aircraft guns and missiles. ARAACOM was renamed the US Army Air Defense Command (USARADCOM) during 1957. It adopted a simpler acronym, ARADCOM, in 1961.<ref name="Development"/>

===Nike Ajax===
{{main|MIM-3 Nike Ajax}}
[[File:Nike Ajax missile.jpg|thumb|upright|A Nike Ajax missile]]
[[File:Nike Site SF-88L Missile Control.jpg|thumb|[[Nike Missile Site SF-88|Nike site SF-88L]] missile control]]

The first successful Nike test was during November 1951, intercepting a drone [[B-17 Flying Fortress]]. The first type, '''Nike Ajax''' (MIM-3), was deployed starting in 1953. The Army initially ordered 1,000 missiles and 60 sets of equipment. They were placed to protect strategic and tactical sites within the US.  As a last-line of defense from air attack, they were positioned to protect cities as well as military installations. The missile was deployed first at [[Fort George G. Meade|Fort Meade, Maryland]] during December 1953. A further 240 launch sites were built up to 1962. They replaced 896 radar-guided [[Anti-aircraft artillery#Post-war|anti-aircraft guns]], operated by the [[United States National Guard|National Guard]] or Army to protect certain key sites. This left a handful of 75&nbsp;mm [[Skysweeper]] emplacements as the only anti-aircraft artillery remaining in use by the US. By 1957 the Regular Army AAA units had been replaced by missile battalions. During 1958 the Army National Guard began to replace their guns and adopt the Ajax system.<ref name="Ajax">{{cite book |last1=Kendrick |first1=Gregory |title=First Line of Defense, Nike Missile Sites in Illinois |date=1996 |publisher=Rocky Mountain System Support Office, National Park Service |location=Denver, Colorado |page=31 |edition=1st }}</ref>

Each launch site had three parts, separated by at least 1,000 yards (914 m).  One part (designated C) of about six acres (24,000&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup>) contained the IFC (Integrated Fire Control) [[radar]] systems to detect incoming targets (acquisition and target tracking) and direct the missiles (missile tracking), along with the computer systems to plot and direct the intercept. The second part (designated L), around forty acres (160,000&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup>), held 1–3 underground missile magazines each serving a group of four launch assemblies and included a safety zone. The site had a crew of 109 officers and men who ran the site continuously.  One launcher would be on 15 minutes alert, two on 30 minutes and one on two hour alert. The third part was the administrative area (designated A), which was usually co-located with the IFC and contained the battery headquarters, barracks, mess, recreation hall, and motor pool. The actual configuration of the Nike sites differed depending on geography.  Whenever possible the sites were placed on existing military bases or National Guard armories; otherwise land had to be purchased.<ref name="Ajax"/>

The Nike batteries were organized in Defense Areas and placed around population centers and strategic locations such as long-range bomber bases, nuclear plants, and (later) ICBM sites. The Nike sites in a Defense Area formed a circle around these cities and bases. There was no fixed number of Nike batteries in a Defense Area and the actual number of batteries varied from a low of two in the [[Barksdale Air Force Base|Barksdale AFB]] Defense Area to a high of 22 in the Chicago Defense Area.  In the Continental United States the sites were numbered from 01 to 99 starting at the north and increasing clockwise. The numbers had no relation to actual compass headings, but generally Nike sites numbered 01 to 25 were to the northeast and east, those numbered 26 to 50 were to the southeast and south, those numbered 51 to 75 were to the southwest and west, and those numbered 76 to 99 were to the northwest and north. The Defense Areas in the Continental United States were identified by a one- or two-letter code which were related to the city name. Thus those Nike sites starting with C were in the Chicago Defense Area, those starting with HM were in the [[Homestead AFB]]/Miami Defense Area, those starting with NY were in the New York Defense Area, and so forth. As an example Nike Site SF-88L refers to the launcher area (L) of the battery located in the northwestern part (88) of the San Francisco Defense Area (SF).<ref name="Ajax"/>

During the early-to-mid-1960s the Nike Ajax batteries were upgraded to the Hercules system. The new missiles had greater range and destructive power, so about half as many batteries provided the same defensive capability. Regular Army batteries were either upgraded to the Hercules system or decommissioned. Army National Guard units continued to use the Ajax system until 1964, when they too upgraded to Hercules. Eventually, the Regular Army units were replaced by the National Guard as a cost-saving measure, since the Guard units could return to their homes when off duty.<ref name="Ajax"/>

A Nike Ajax missile accidentally exploded at a battery in [[Leonardo, New Jersey]] on 22 May 1958, killing six soldiers and four civilians.  A memorial can be found at [[Fort Hancock, New Jersey|Fort Hancock]] in the Sandy Hook Unit of [[Gateway National Recreation Area]].<ref name="Ajax"/>

===Nike Hercules===
{{Main|MIM-14 Nike-Hercules}}
{{More citations needed|section|date=April 2011}}
[[File:A Nike Hercules missile at the Army Museum in Brussels.jpg|upright|thumb|A Nike Hercules missile]]
Even as Nike Ajax was being tested, work started on Nike-B, later renamed '''Nike Hercules''' (MIM-14). It improved speed, range and accuracy, and could intercept [[ballistic missile]]s. The Hercules had a range of about 100 miles (160&nbsp;km), a top speed in excess of 3,000&nbsp;mph (4,800&nbsp;km/h) and a maximum altitude of around 150,000&nbsp;ft (about 46&nbsp;km)<ref>{{cite book|title=FM 44-1|publisher=U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1962-650514|pages=8|edition=1962-650514|url=http://ed-thelen.org/FM44-1.pdf|ref=Department of the Army Field Manual 44-1}}</ref> (30&nbsp;km). It had solid fuel boost and [[sustainer rocket]] motors, with the boost phase consisting of four Nike Ajax [[booster (rocketry)|boosters]] strapped together. In the 70's some (foreign) users replaced the vacuum tube guidance circuits in the missile with more reliable solid-state components, but electron tube circuits were still used well into the 80's.<ref name="Hercules">{{cite book |last1=Kendrick |first1=Gregory |title=First Line of Defense, Nike Missile Sites in Illinois |date=1996 |publisher=Rocky Mountain System Support Office, National Park Service |location=Denver, Colorado |pages=32–35 |edition=1st }}</ref> The electron tube's resistance to EMP effects over earlier non-EMP-hardened solid-state circuits played a major part in the retention of 'obsolete' technology until hardened solid-state circuits were developed.

[[File:"It's no secret we're in the 'missile business' to stay..." 1958 Douglas Aircraft Company ad detail, from- The Big T 1958 (page 184 crop).jpg|left|thumb|"It's no secret we're in the 'missile business' to stay..." Douglas Aircraft Company ad in the [[California Institute of Technology]] 1958 yearbook]]
The missile also had an optional [[nuclear weapon|nuclear warhead]] to improve the ability to defend against mass formations. The [[W31|W-31]] warhead had four variants offering 2, 10, 20 and 30 kiloton yields. The 20&nbsp;kt version was used in the Hercules system. At sites in the United States, the missile almost exclusively carried a nuclear warhead. Sites in foreign nations typically had a mix of high-explosive and nuclear warheads. The [[fire-control system]] of the Nike system was also improved in the Hercules, and included a [[surface-to-surface missile|surface-to-surface]] mode which was successfully tested in Alaska. Arming the missile, with concurrent choosing of the deployment mode, was accomplished by changing a single plug on the warhead from the "Safe Plug" to "Surface to Air" or "Surface to Surface" <ref name="Hercules"/> and a range setting in the TRR. 

The Nike Hercules was deployed starting in June 1958. First deployed to [[Chicago]], 393 Hercules ground systems were manufactured. By 1960 ARADCOM had 88 Hercules batteries and 174 Ajax batteries, defending 23 zones across 30 states. Peak deployment was in 1963 with 134 Hercules batteries not including the US Army Hercules batteries deployed in Germany, Greece, Greenland, Italy, Korea, Okinawa, Taiwan, and Turkey.<ref name="Hercules"/>

In 1961, SAC and the U.S. Army began a joint training mission with benefits for both parties. SAC needed fresh (simulated) targets which the cities ringed by Nike/Hercules sites provided, and the Army needed live targets to acquire and track with their radar. SAC had many [[Radar Bomb Scoring]] (RBS) sites across the country which had very similar acquisition and tracking radar, plus similar computerized plotting boards which were used to record the bomber tracks and bomb release points. Airmen from these sites were [[Temporary duty assignment|temporarily assigned]] to Nike sites across the country to train the Nike crews in RBS procedures. The distances from the simulated bomb landing point and the "target" were recorded on paper, measured, encoded, and transmitted to the aircrews. The results of these bomb runs were used to promote or demote air crews. These exercises also included [[Electronic countermeasure]] training. The performance of the NIKE crews improved remarkably with this "live target" practice.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Many Nike Hercules batteries were manned by [[Army National Guard]] troops, with a single active Army officer assigned to each battalion to account for the unit's nuclear warheads. The National Guard air defense units shared responsibility for defense of their assigned area with active Army units in the area, and reported to the active Army chain of command. This is the only known instance of Army National Guard units being equipped with operational nuclear weapons.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}}

===Nike Zeus===
{{main|LIM-49 Nike Zeus}}
[[File:NIKE Zeus.jpg|thumb|upright|Launch of a Nike Zeus missile]]
Development continued, producing '''''Improved'' Nike Hercules''' and then '''Nike Zeus''' A and B. The Zeus was aimed at intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).<ref name="Zeus">{{cite book |last1=Kendrick |first1=Gregory |title=First Line of Defense, Nike Missile Sites in Illinois |date=1996 |publisher=Rocky Mountain System Support Office, National Park Service |location=Denver, Colorado |pages=36–38 |edition=1st }}</ref>

Zeus, with a new 400,000&nbsp;lbf (1.78 MN) thrust solid-fuel booster, was first test launched during August 1959 and demonstrated a top speed of 8,000&nbsp;mph (12,875&nbsp;km/h). The Nike Zeus system utilized the ground-based Zeus Acquisition Radar (ZAR), a significant improvement over the Nike Hercules HIPAR guidance system. Shaped like a pyramid, the ZAR featured a [[Luneburg lens]] receiver aerial weighing about 1,000 tons. The first successful intercept of an ICBM by Zeus was in 1962, at [[Kwajalein]] in the [[Marshall Islands]].  Despite its technological advancements, the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] terminated Zeus development in 1963. The Zeus system, which cost an estimated $15 billion{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}}, still suffered from several technical flaws that were believed to be uneconomical to overcome.<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1962/1962%20-%201337.html "NIKE ZEUS – Seventeen years of growth"] ''Flight International'' 2 August 1962 pp.166–170</ref>

Still, the Army continued to develop an anti-ICBM weapon system referred to as "Nike-X" – that was largely based on the technological advances of the Zeus system. Nike-X featured [[phased array|phased-array]] radars, computer advances, and a missile tolerant of skin temperatures three times those of the Zeus. In September 1967, the Department of Defense announced the deployment of the [[LIM-49A Spartan]] missile system, its major elements drawn from Nike X development.<ref name="Zeus"/>

In March 1969 the Army started the [[anti-ballistic missile]] [[Safeguard Program]], which was designed to defend [[LGM-30 Minuteman|Minuteman]] ICBMs, and which was also based on the Nike-X system. It became operational in 1975, but was shut down after just three months.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Missile defences have a long history|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|date=Jan 1997|volume=53|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=owwAAAAAMBAJ&q=Safeguard%20ABMs%20deployed%20in%201975%201976&pg=PA69|access-date=9 February 2011|page=69|publisher=Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.|issn=0096-3402}}</ref>

=== Nike-X ===
{{main|Nike-X}}
[[File:Sprint missile maneuvering after launch.jpg|thumb|The Sprint missile was the main weapon in the Nike-X system, intercepting enemy ICBM warheads only seconds before they exploded.]]

'''Nike-X''' was a proposed [[US Army]] [[anti-ballistic missile]] (ABM) system designed to protect major cities in the United States from attacks by the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[ICBM]] fleet. The name referred to its experimental basis, it was intended to be replaced by a more appropriate name when the system was put into production. This never came to pass; the original Nike-X concept was replaced by a much more limited defense system known as the [[Sentinel program]] that used some of the same equipment.

Nike-X was a response to the failure of the earlier [[LIM-49 Nike Zeus|Nike Zeus]] system. Zeus had been designed to face a few dozen Soviet ICBMs in the 1950s, and its design would mean it was largely useless by mid-1960s when it would be facing hundreds. It was calculated that a salvo of only four ICBMs would have a 90% chance of hitting the Zeus base, as their radars could only track a few warheads at the same time. Worse, the attacker could use [[radar reflector]]s or [[high-altitude nuclear explosion]]s to obscure the warheads until they were too close to attack, making a single warhead attack highly likely to succeed.

Nike-X addressed these concerns by basing its defense on a very fast, short-range missile known as [[Sprint (missile)|Sprint]]. Large numbers would be clustered near potential targets, allowing successful interception right up to the last few seconds of the warhead's re-entry. They would operate below the altitude where decoys or explosions had any effect. Nike-X also used a new radar system that could track hundreds of objects at once, allowing salvoes of many Sprints. It would require dozens of missiles to overwhelm the system. Nike-X considered retaining the longer range Zeus missile, and later developed an extended range version known as [[LIM-49 Spartan|Zeus EX]]. It played a secondary role in the Nike-X system, intended primarily for use in areas outside the Sprint protected regions.

Nike-X required at least one interceptor missile to attack each incoming warhead. As the USSR's missile fleet grew, the cost of implementing Nike-X began to grow as well. Looking for lower-cost options, a number of studies carried out between 1965 and 1967 examined a variety of scenarios where a limited number of interceptors might still be militarily useful. Among these, the I-67 concept suggested building a lightweight defense against very limited attacks. When the Chinese exploded their first [[Thermonuclear weapon|H-bomb]] in 1967, I-67 was promoted as a defense against a Chinese attack, and this system became Sentinel in October. Nike-X development, in its original form, ended.

===Production===
The figures do not include approximately 1 billion dollars for research and development, paid to Western Electric. The figures below are in millions of dollars.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=caQjAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA14 |page=14 |title=Pyramiding of Profits and Costs in the Missile Procurement Program |date=March 31, 1964 |author=Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate}}</ref>

{|class=wikitable
|-
! Company !! Production<br/> cost !! Producer<br/> profit !! Douglas<br/> subcontract<br/> profit !! Western Electric<br/> subcontract profit
|-
! colspan=5 | Tier 3, subcontractors to Douglas Aircraft
|-
| [[Fruehauf Trailer Corporation|Fruehauf Trailer Co.]] || 49.3 || 4.5 || 3.7 || 3.3
|-
| [[Consolidated Western Steel]] || 146.2 || 9.3 || 10.4 || 9.8
|-
| others || 286.6 ||{{efn|name=noprofit|group=contractors|Undetermined profits included in costs}} || 23.2 || 16.3
|-
! colspan=5 | Tier 2, subcontractors to Western Electric
|-
| [[Douglas Aircraft]] || 103 || 8.3 || || 5.9
|-
| others || 428.8 ||{{efn|name=noprofit}} || || 42
|-
! colspan=5 | Tier 1, contractor to the Army
|-
| [[Western Electric]] || 359.3 || 35.2 || ||
|-
! colspan=5 | Totals
|-
| || 1,373.2{{efn|group=contracts|Some profits included in production totals}} || 57.3 || 37.3 || 77.3
|}
{{notelist|group=contractors}}

Total cost to Army: 1,545.1

===Decommissioning===
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2011}}
Soviet development of [[ICBM]]s decreased the value of the Nike (aircraft) air defense system.  Beginning around 1965, the number of Nike batteries was reduced. [[Thule Air Base|Thule]] air defense was reduced during 1965 and [[Strategic Air Command|SAC]] air base defense during 1966, reducing the number of batteries to 112.  Budgetary cuts reduced that number to 87 in 1968, and 82 in 1969.

Some small-scale work to use Nike Zeus as an [[anti-satellite weapon]] (ASAT) was carried out from 1962 until the project was canceled in favor of the [[PGM-17 Thor|Thor]] based [[Program 437]] system during 1966.
In the end, neither development would enter service. However, the Nike Zeus system did demonstrate a [[hit-to-kill]] capability against ballistic missiles during the early 1960s. See [[National Missile Defense]] and [[anti-ballistic missile]] (ABM) systems.

Nike Hercules was included in [[SALT I]] discussions as an ABM.  Following the [[Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty]] signed during 1972, and further budget reduction, almost all Nike sites in the continental United States were deactivated by April 1974.  Some units remained active until the later part of that decade in a coastal air defense role.