Editing Project Nike (section)

===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>