Nike Hercules was MIM-14A, MIM-14B and MIM-14C. Philadelphia, and Chicago. Site Point, near the Anchorage airport, was a double site with two complete batteries. That same year, the Army began to modify Nike-Ajax bases to fire Nike-Hercules missiles. Die 3. The first HIPAR was tested at White Sands between 14 April 1960 and 13 April 1961, starting with two Ajax launches that passed 14 yards and 18 yards from the drone targets, and a further 17 Hercules launches that were generally successful. The active seeker system was later dropped to lower costs. When mounted on its booster pack, the Hercules missile was 41 feet 6 inches (12.65 m) long with a wingspan of 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) (one side only). The site began as a Nike Ajax base and was later converted to Nike Hercules. The LA consisted to a maximum of four launching sections, each section consisted of an underground storage area, an elevator to move missiles to and from the surface launchers, and four aboveground firing locations. In January, only four missiles were operational at Suffolk, and during House appropriation hearings that month, the DoD proved rather subdued when Congress attacked the design, especially in light of several failed tests of the BOMARC B missile. It is relatively easy to jam a conventional radar by sending out additional pulses of radio signal on the same frequency. LOPAR was relatively small, and the TTR/MTR were always trailer based, so these systems were also fairly mobile. [21] This was answered most forcibly not by the Army, but the Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson, who wrote in Newsweek that "one hard solid fact remerges above them all: no matter what the Nike is or isn't, it's the only land-based operational anti-aircraft missile that the U.S. Thomas B. Cochran, William M. Arkin, and Milton Hoenig, sfn error: no target: CITEREFLeonard2011 (. Für Wartung und Bewachung waren US-Soldaten im Abschussbereich bzw. [51][verification needed] [52] The last versions carried the W31 Mod 2 warhead, with yields of 2 or 20 kt. Nike Hercules first entered service on June 30, 1958, at batteries located near New York. In May 1952, Bell was asked to explore such an adaptation to the Nike. HIPAR would detect targets separately and "hand off" to the LOPAR and TTR so those systems could remain largely unchanged and able to launch either Hercules or Ajax. To ensure the MTR could see and track the missile during its initial rapid assent as it launched, the IFC was normally located about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the "Launching Area" (LA). The history of Phil Knight and the incredible men and women he brought into his company to make NIKE … Once a target was found on the LOPAR it could be identified with aid of an Identification friend or foe system. Box art is a clearly exciting launch sequence! In testing the system was successful against all manner of short-range rockets and missiles, and successfully tracked the Redstone on 23 September and 5 October 1963, but failed to achieve a "kill" in either test due to unrelated problems. The AN/MPQ-43 Mobile HIPAR was made part of Hercules Standard A in August 1966m and began operational deployment in Europe on 12 April 1967.[43]. During the last years of their deployment in Europe, the issue at hand was more about maintaining security of the nuclear capable missiles, rather than mobility. Soviet development of ICBMs and the de-emphasis of their bomber force decreased the value of the Hercules system. Like the Ajax, the Hercules used a transponder in the missile. Click here to download manual (26.6 Megs) at 12:13 AM. Similar experiments for Hercules boosters led to the XM-61 single-chamber booster, but when the XM-42 cluster proved to be even less expensive than expected, this effort was also dropped. Both forces, and their congressional supporters, realized that splitting the budget would mean neither force would be funded to the level required to fulfill the defence mission. [48] The firing or launch command was given manually by the Battery Control Officer based on orders or Rules of Engagements. —Don Bender (U.S. Army Photos) The Life of a Missileman Our battery was one of 19 comprising the New York-Philadelphia Defense. BOMARC proved extremely expensive, difficult to maintain in operation readiness, had questionable performance, and was displaying a continued inability to reach operational status. [9], Even as the Nike was undergoing testing, planners grew concerned about the missile's ability to attack formations of aircraft. A short period after launch the actual location, i.e. The remaining units were deactivated during the spring of 1979. On 15 November 1956, the new missile was officially renamed as the Nike Hercules, as part of DA Circular 700-22, while the Nike I becoming Nike Ajax. The Army eventually decided not to proceed with any Ajax modifications as Hercules would be arriving shortly anyway. It evolved into a much larger missile with two solid fuel stages that provided three times the range of the Ajax. The House eventually came to support the Defense Secretary's position as stated in the Master Air Defense Plan, retaining Hercules while reducing BOMARC and SAGE. The LA also had a control van to control and monitor the LA activities and maintenance facilities. Efforts to mount the HIPAR on the same platform between March and December 1962 were not nearly as successful, and on 18 December 1962 the concept was abandoned in favor of an "airmobile" solution using conventional M52 trucks and modified trailers. [11], The competing implosion-type design is considerably more efficient and uses much less fuel to reach any given explosive power. During an alert, the site would go on "blue alert", at which time the LA crew would arm and erect the missiles and then retreat to safety. In part because of less parts supportability, Western European (Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force (4 ATAF) and Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF) sites essentially became fixed sites and were no longer considered capable of a mobile role. Implosion designs are necessarily spherical, and thus less suitable for inclusion in a skinny fuselage like Nike's. [40], The first deployment of the EFS/ATBM HIPAR was carried out between February and 20 April 1963, but during this time the Army decided not to deploy these systems in the United States. One of these locations was directly above the elevator, the others were reached by manually pushing the missiles off the elevator to the launcher along rails. [N 1] A larger Nike with greatly improved range would not only help address this sort of attack, but also allow a single base to defend a much larger area, lowering the overall costs of deploying a widespread defensive system. [17], Throughout the early Nike evolution, the then-new Air Force had been encouraged by the deployment of the missile systems. In some instances, as was the case with N-75, the Army deactivated missile operations altogether. Nike Hercules, WSPG, Jan 1957. Find great designs on baseball hats and trucker hats. The crew on the LA, also under command of the BCO, was responsible for preparing and erecting the missile. The government commissioned the building of 240 Nike Missile bases around the country. The missile will be displayed at a decommissioned Cold-War era Nike Missile Base in Everglades National Park. Al is president of the Nike Historical Society. [7], In 1953, Project Nike delivered the world's first operational anti-aircraft missile system, known simply as Nike. It was a substantial improvement over the Nike-Ajax in terms of distance, accuracy and power. GAPA moved to the US Air Force when that branch was formed in 1947. The booster was formed from four of the earlier Ajax M5E1 boosters held together in a frame. [10], "Nike Ajax" used a slightly modified Nike missile, largely a re-arrangement of the internal components, making room for the 15 kt WX-9 "gun-type" warhead also being developed as an artillery round. Airframe: Douglas Aircraft Company Santa Monica, California, Propulsion: Booster: Hercules Powder Company Radford Arsenal, Virginia, Sustainer: Thiokol Chemical Corporation Longhorn Division, Marshall, Texas, Guidance: Western Electric Company New York. The missiles remained deployed around strategically important areas within the continental United States until 1974. 145 missile batteries were deployed during the cold war. Hercules also offered the ability to attack pre-located ground targets, after feeding in the coordinates in an operation that took about five minutes. [35], In early 1956, Bell began studies of the Improved Nike Hercules (INH) concept by considering the predicted threat for the 1960-65 period. [40], The primary change to create the resulting "Improved EFS/ATBM Hercules" was a modified version of the HIPAR. Deployment of the INH upgrade kits began on 10 June 1961 at the BA-30 site in the Washington–Baltimore defense area, and continued into September 1967. From 1961 through 1971, the Army repurposed the site as a radio relay station. For these missions the computer used the MTR to guide the missile to a point above the target, then commanded it to dive vertically while measuring any changes in trajectory as it fell. [32] Conventionally armed Nike Hercules missiles also served in the United States, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Norway, and Taiwan. Like almost any thorny military problem of the 1950s, the solution was the application of nuclear bombs. [41][42] In spite of this success, the GOER-based Hercules would not be used operationally. This was aircraft with speeds up to Mach 3, a wide range of radar cross sections, and powerful electronic countermeasures. 1 comments: 29 sec. At this time the target information and the intercept point were displayed on the plotting boards and the BCO selected the right time to manually fire. Although a lot of varied work is done to restore, maintain, and improve site SF-88, this is the first report of such work reported by NikeMissile.org. Although Hercules had demonstrated its ability to successfully engage short-range missiles, the capability was not considered very important. The TRR was operated by the track supervisor. In 1958 an article appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times in which various Air Force officials complained that the Hercules was ineffective. See more ideas about hercules, nike, nike site. [38] HIPAR was a large system and generally deployed under a dome on top of a concrete platform that raised it above any local obstructions. Unterstellt war das Bataillon dem Flugabwehrraketenregiment 4, dem späteren Flugabwehrraketengeschwader 2. In Anchorage, Alaska, Site Point (A Battery) was converted into a ski chalet for Kincaid Park. To provide the same range of view, the tracking radars were also often placed on concrete platforms of their own, although these were much smaller. Product details File Size : 18818 KB Publication Date : January 31, 2017 Language: : English ASIN : B01N172A3S Print Length : 346 pages Word Wise : Enabled Text-to-Speech : Not enabled Enhanced Typesetting : Enabled X-Ray : Not Enabled Screen Reader : Supported Simultaneous Device Usage : … By 1959, Plato was still very much a paper project when news of large deployments of short-range missiles in the Warsaw Bloc became a clear threat. in einer Kaserne stationiert. during a launcher area readiness drill. Each Nike battery consisted of two or three areas; IFC, LA and general. Hercules had a complicated family tree. It is relatively easy to jam range information on monopulse radars like the TTR by sending out false return signals. The WX-9, like all gun-type designs, was long and thin, originally designed to be fired from an 11 in (280 mm) artillery piece, and easily fit within the Nike fuselage. Nike Hercules in Alaska, are available in Alaskan libraries. Even as Nike Ajax was being tested, work started on Nike-B, later renamed Nike Hercules (MIM-14). When a missile is fired in a surface-to-air mission, an intercept cannot be made within a "dead zone" surrounding its launcher. When the TTR and MTR radars were locked, the computer had a firing solution and the missile reported active, the LA lamp changed from amber to green, indicating the ability to fire. The TRR system combatted this by operating on two selectable very different set of frequencies. [24] This forced the Army to turn its Jupiter IRBM systems to the Air Force, and to limit the range of their ABM developments. [36] Combining range from the TRR and direction from the TTR provided complete information on the target. [2], Approximately 25,000 Nike Hercules were manufactured. Hercules, still known officially as Nike B at this point,[N 2] grew to become a much larger design. has. In Alaska, a unique above-ground shelter configuration was provided for batteries guarding Anchorage and Fairbanks. Nike Hercules Missile Q5 High Altitude Intercept - 1.5 minutes . The 'dead zone" has a ground radius of approximately 10,000 yards and an altitude of approximately 20,000 ft. Three key elements were identified; the need to attack formations without nuclear warheads, operations against low-altitude targets, and better traffic-handling capabilities to handle larger raids. Inside are sprues for essentially two models- the missile and the launcher- plus decals and the … Further deployments to allied units and US units in Alaska were carried out between November 1963 and the summer of 1965.[40]. Interceptions with the Hercules system would typically start with targets being detected and identified on the HIPAR system, if this was in use. It improved speed, range and accuracy, and could intercept ballistic missiles.The Hercules had a range of about 100 miles (160 km), a top speed in excess of 3,000 mph (4,800 km/h) and a maximum altitude of around 150,000 ft (30 km). With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the units were deactivated in 1988. [48] On the IFC the status of the selected missile was given. [27], It did, however, allow development of Hercules to continue, and the system was soon preparing to deploy. Patriot's much higher accuracy allowed it to dispense with the nuclear warhead, and Hercules was the last US SAM to use this option. Martin produced the T48E1 and E2 designs for Ajax used a fibreglass casing that was destroyed by small explosives, but this proved overweight and did not boost the Ajax to the required speed. Nike Hercules after take-off at NATO Missile Firing Installation in Greece, Dutch Nike site in West Germany (note the above ground storage shelter), MIM-14 Nike-H missile at Okinawa, June 1967, Battery Control Officer operating position with the acquisition radar operator on the left and the computer operator on the right. Nor did it stop the fighting in the press. In South Florida, half of the Nike Hercules missiles of the Homestead-Miami Defense were armed with the T-45 high-explosive warheads. The Nike Historical Society and the National Park Service are paying for the materials. The groups assemble to form Nike Hercules batteries (18:40-19:41). The TTR was operated by three operators (range, elevation and azimuth). [49] These smaller wings also housed the antennae of the transponder. [N 3] The first SNODGRASS round was launched on 14 July with its warhead replaced by an instrument package and launched against a 350-knot Q2A Ryan Firebee I drone. Die Nike Hercules [ˈnaɪki ˈhərkjuli:s] (auch SAM-A-25 und später MIM-14) war eine Langstrecken-Flugabwehrrakete der Zeit des Kalten Krieges aus US-amerikanischer Produktion. The project had moved several times, and was now in late development as the BOMARC. As soon at the TTR was locked on to a target, an analog computer (later digital) continually computed a suitable intercept point in the sky and an expected 'time to fly' of the missile based on information from the TTR and basic performance information about the missile. The last active Nike Ajax batteries were relieved of their mission in December 1961, followed by the last Army National Guard unit in May 1964. [10], Improving performance against such targets would require either much higher resolution radars or much larger warheads. The Hercules missile systems sold to Japan (Nike J) were subsequently fitted with upgraded internal guidance systems, the original vacuum tube systems being replaced with transistorized ones. Hercules was designed from the start to operate from Ajax bases. By the early 1950s, the Air Force was still struggling with their own long-range weapon systems, originally started in the 1940s in the GAPA project. The IFC contained the search and tracking radars and control center (operators, computer, etc. Otherwise the LOPAR was used. The NHK-1 (Nike Hercules Korea 1) was a short-range, solid-fueled ballistic missile. Nike-Hercules Operators Manual. Nuclear-armed Nike Hercules missiles were deployed in the United States, Greece, Italy, Korea and Turkey, and with Belgian, Dutch, and U.S. forces in West Germany. Unlike the older sites, these batteries were placed in locations that optimized the missiles� range and minimized the warhead damage. The U.S. Army continued to use Hercules as a front-line air defense weapon in Europe until 1983, when Patriot missile batteries were deployed. The problem was the missile launcher itself, and especially the large HIPAR radar, which presented a formidable mobility problem. New to the Hercules system was the Target Ranging Radar, or TRR. The Army then began its own series of press releases under what they called "Project Truth". Shop Nike Hercules Hats from CafePress. Of the two, the warhead seemed like the simplest problem to address. Testing of the W-7 was put into AMMO, while the SNODGRASS series was moved to an Army-Air Force test at Eglin Air Force Base with tests of both the conventional T45 and nuclear W-7 warheads. [46] Three versions were produced, MIM-14A, B and C. The differences between these versions are not known. The last Hercules missile was launched in the Sardinian range of Capo San Lorenzo in Italy on November 24, 2006.[45]. The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. TTR and TRR operator console. A new missile could be launched about 11 seconds after detonation or rejecting the previous missile. As a result of the crisis, however, the U.S. realized it was vulnerable. The Nike Hercules was a command-guided, long-range, high-altitude anti-aircraft missile. The Nike stage or Nike booster, a solid fuel rocket motor, was created by Hercules Aerospace for the Nike Ajax (M5) Nike Hercules (M5E1) (and M88 late in Hercules career). Starting in April 1960, considerable effort was put into a fully mobile "Cross-Country Hercules" launcher based on the M520 Goer vehicle, an articulated prime mover that saw considerable service during the Vietnam War. These changes were presented on 24 August 1956, and accepted by both CONARC and ARADCOM. Four Nike batteries were normally organized into a single battalion.[48]. The original Ajax detection radar retroactively became known as LOPAR, and remained in use as the main target selection radar in the missile control van. In 1959 both the House and Senate debated the systems, with the Senate recommending cutting funding for Hercules and the House stating the opposite. Solid fuel rockets can remain stored for years and are generally very difficult to ignite without an extended period of applied flame. In 1946, the USAAF also started two early research projects into anti-missile systems in Project Thumper and Project Wizard. By making the signal wide-frequency, the jammer has to likewise broadcast across a similar bandwidth, limiting the energy in any one frequency and allowing the operator to tune the receiver to find an unjammed band. [50], Hercules could carry either a nuclear warhead or a conventional high-explosive warhead (T-45 fragmentation type). Aug 12, 2019 - Explore Stephen T. Broas's board "Nike Hercules" on Pinterest. A similar test on 29 July launched two missiles against three F-80 Shooting Star drones flying in formation, the first missile destroyed the lead aircraft while the second passed within lethal range of a second. [5] Nike tracked both the target and the missile using separate radars, compared the locations in a computer, and sent commands to the missile to fly to a point in the sky to intercept the target. MTR operator console. [53] There are slight differences in dimensions as reported in different sources, it is not known if this is due to different versions.[46]. [29], Meanwhile, the Air Force scrambled to bring BOMARC to operational status, and on 1 September 1959 declared the 46th Air Defense Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base operational. It was developed for use as the first stage of the Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules missiles as part of Project Nike.. Maximale Geschwindigkeit: Mach 3,5 During development the Air Force continued its Project Wizard while the Army started its Project Plato studies for dedicated anti-missile systems. Browse 31 nike hercules missile stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. "[30], Plans had been made to test the Hercules' W-7 warhead in a live-fire exercise in 1959 as part of "Operation SNODGRASS". Starttriebwerk wird gezündet (unterer schwarzer Teil) Starttriebwerk (Booster) fällt nach 3,4 sec, ab Zündung des Marschtriebwerks (oberer weißer Teil) Brenndauer: ca. [14], During this period, some effort was put into a "frangible booster" for the Ajax. The fuselage had a bullet-like shape (Sears–Haack body), but this was difficult to make out due to the presence of the four large delta wings running almost the entire length of the fuselage. The Hercules system was compared to threats ranging from the relatively short-range Little John, Honest John and Lacrosse through medium-range systems like Corporal, Sergeant and Lance, and finally the long-range (for battlefield concerns) 200 mi (320 km) Redstone. You’ll see the old barracks that once housed 150 soldiers, painted in its or… During World War II, the US Army Air Force (USAAF) concluded that existing anti-aircraft guns, only marginally effective against existing generations of propeller-driven aircraft, would not be effective at all against the emerging jet-powered designs. The TRR solves this problem by providing a separate ranging system on another frequency. A 23 October 1954 report stated that "Concurrent with the prosecution of the NIKE I and NIKE B programs, studies and research and development must be conducted to insure that the NIKE equipment is modernized to the maximum extent within the limits of current technology and economics of improvement as compared to investment in a new system ...". The addition of the TRR solved a problem with early pulse radar units. The result was fine for ranging but useless for position determination. [25], This did not do much to stop the squabbling, nor did it solve the problems that led to the issues in the first place – the fight over Hercules and BOMARC and related anti-missile developments. The NHK-1 was the first ballistic missile indigenously produced in South Korea. This used much less fissile material and was thus considerably less expensive. This was carried out in a protected area behind a large berm, in order to protect the rest of the site from an accidental explosion during fuelling. This, in turn, required a much larger booster to loft it, but this was solved by strapping together four of the existing Nike boosters to form a cluster known as the XM-42, with the only modification to the original M5 engine design being the addition of new holes to bolt them together, creating the M5E. Hercules was officially referred to as "transportable", but moving a battery was a significant operation and required considerable construction at the firing sites. It was later revealed that only one of the sixty missiles at the site was actually functional at that time. A variety of problems, including one found in the W-7 warhead, caused delays in the testing programs, so a single launch of the T45-equipped Hercules was also added to the AMMO project. However, as it protected a much greater area, not as many sites were needed to provide coverage of potential targets. Deployment began in 1958, initially at new bases, but it eventually took over many Ajax bases as well. Meanwhile, the TTR can continue offering location information, and in the case that is also jammed (difficult but possible), was upgraded to offer a home-on-jam mode that used the ECM system's own broadcasts as a location source. "[22] By the time early Hercules deployments were starting in 1958, BOMARC was still nowhere near operational. Hercules batteries in the US were generally placed in older Ajax bases, using their underground storage and maintenance buildings. This complexity added enormously to the cost and time required to maintain the missiles. Note that this has no effect on the determination of the direction to the target, which is the same for both the original and jammer pulses. Part of the rush was due to the newly evolving understanding of the effects of nuclear weapons on radar systems, which led to serious concerns about various weapon's systems ability to operate after nearby nuclear explosions. The Alaskan sites were deactivated in 1978 and Florida sites stood down during the following year. This signal would be very difficult to jam because the jammer would have to broadcast across a wide set of frequencies in order to ensure they were returning on the frequency the receiver had actually selected. [18] Nevertheless, when the Army first released information about Ajax to the press in 1953, the Air Force quickly responded by leaking information about BOMARC to Aviation Week,[19] and continued to denigrate Nike in the press over the next few years. Additionally the radar was given the "Electronic Frequency Selection" (EFS) system which allowed operators to quickly switch between a selection of operating frequencies at about 20 microseconds, while the earlier system required manual switching that took about 30 seconds. One of them was here - Missile Base HM-69. Once locked-on, tracking was automatic.[48]. The MTR was operated by one operator. What Nike is all about. Like the Germans and British before them, they concluded the only successful defence would be to use guided weapons. Hercules remained the US's primary heavy SAM until it began to be replaced by the higher performance and considerably more mobile MIM-104 Patriot in the 1980s. Site Bay (C Battery), across Cook Inlet from the others, has been mostly demolished, with only burned out shells of the batteries remaining, as well as a few storage bunkers. This included about 30 seconds to develop a track for a target; 4 seconds for computer to develop a firing solution, and 2 seconds between the initial fire order command and missile launch. As Hercules had evolved from the fixed-base Ajax system, early deployments offered no mobility. Site Summit (B Battery) still sits above Eagle River, its IFC buildings and clamshell towers easily visible when driving towards Anchorage. Make a bold statement with our Nike Hercules T-Shirts, or choose from our wide variety of expressive graphic tees for any season, interest or occasion . As early as 1944 the US Army started exploring anti-aircraft missiles, examining a variety of concepts. In his 26 November 1956 memorandum, he limited the Army to weapons with 200-mile (320 km) range, and those involved in ground-to-air defense to only 100 miles (160 km). [44] Beginning around 1965, the number of Nike batteries was reduced. Safety precautions require a special set of keys (19:42-20:25). Instead of de-emphasizing BOMARC in favor of Hercules, inter-service rivalry became rampant, and the Air Force began a policy of denigrating Hercules and the Army using policy by press release. [48], The entire sequence of events from decision to launch to actual launch normally took about 36 seconds. Nike Hercules was included in SALT I discussions as an ABM. Another development for the anti-ballistic missile role later emerged as the much larger LIM-49 Nike Zeus design. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, but could also be fitted with a conventional warhead for export use. Smaller deltas in front of the main wings, and blended into them, provided roll control with very small flaps mounted to pivot along a line roughly 45 degrees from the line of the fuselage. To address this whole range of issues, Bell proposed a series of changes:[36]. Auf sieben bis neun Nike Hercules Raketen waren Nukleargefechtsköpfe der US Army montiert. The back of the controls were even with the extreme rear of the missile. Launched against such a formation, the Nike would fly towards the center of the composite return. Bell also proposed a much more modified design known as "Nike Hercules" with an enlarged upper fuselage able to carry the XW-7 warhead of up to 40 kt. This led to the use of semi-trailer systems for the fire control systems, which could be easily moved and re-positioned as required. As the missiles were brought to readiness, a light board in the LA control van lit up with a series of amber lights for each launcher area, and green lights for each missile. Department of the Army Operators Technical Manual TM9-1400-250-10/2 on the Nike-Hercules missile, dated December 1960. The crisis was finally resolved, of course, with the removal of the Russian missiles. As the larger Hercules would be easier to adapt to a longer-range form, the Army selected it as the winning design. The photo at right shows Nike Hercules missiles in their down and up (launch) positions. [13], Things changed dramatically with the development of Hercules. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis, the students are restoring one of the original Nike Hercules missiles once tipped with a nuclear warhead and aimed at Cuba. Of these threats, Redstone was considered just within the Hercules' capabilities, able to defend against such a target over a relatively limited range.