The Review | Nike Missile Site, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, CA
Reviewed by Brian Nyquist, museum volunteer
Comments of the author are his and do not represent the policy or position of the U.S. Navy.
Because I’m a child of the 50s and 60s and because of my name, I was called “Nuclear Nike” in elementary school by my friends. I guess I perceived it as a compliment! In the news in those days were the Nike missiles and the protection they provided to our nation’s assets.
I proposed to write three short articles for Sonar Echo about the early missile systems and where you might go to actually tour what is left of their bases in the U.S. This is the first. The internet has much more information and many photos. My goal is not to provide an exhaustive review, just to tempt you to look into it a bit more. I have recently been privileged to travel to all three of the “Missile Museums” and am an enthusiastic casual historian. My wife grins and occasionally declines. She claims she’s seen enough missiles: can you imagine that?
Nike Missile Systems were developed by Bell Labs starting in 1954. The perceived need was for protection of military airfields and high value target (cities) in the U.S. It was initially designed as a “line of sight” system but as it evolved, it became a system that would “see” and “kill” targets incoming from 100 miles out. The challenge was to see jet aircraft incoming with enough warning and missile speed to intercept. Keep in mind the issues of the time: Pearl Harbor was fresh in our minds; and jet engines, rocket engines, and nuclear weapons were possible and evolving. Nike Ajax was developed to counter the Cold War threat of Soviet bombers aiming at the U.S. mainland. Planning for the defense against this threat started in about 1944.
Enter Nike Ajax. With conventional warheads, it was designed to meet that threat. Western Electric/Bell Labs presented parameters of a system in mid-1945 which evolved into the Nike Ajax program. The first static firing of a Nike missile was at White Sands in September of 1946. In 1954, the U.S. Army deployed the world’s first operational guided surface-to-air missile system.
Ultimately, 350 missile batteries were manufactured and deployed with extensive pre-testing and crew training at Fort Bliss. They were proven to be quite effective with each missile containing three sections of high explosive. A disadvantage of the Ajax system was its ability to knock out only one target at a time. The missile was 21 to 35 feet long (longer with a booster), 12 inches in diameter, with a wingspan of 4 feet 6 inches. It could achieve more than 1,600 mph, attain altitudes of 70,000 feet, and had a range of 25 to 30 miles.
The Nike Hercules was planned to counter the threat of a formation of Soviet bombers attacking a military airfield. The Nike Ajax was adept at hitting a single aircraft, but a formation would not be neutralized. It was the 1950s: bigger bombs meant nuclear bombs. Initially a long thin fission weapon labeled WX9 was designed to fit into the existing fuselage of the Nike Ajax missile. That was merely a stopgap pending Nike Hercules development. A much larger missile, the Hercules was initiallly deployed from existing Nike Ajax sites. Its specifications included 32-inch diameter and 10,700 pound mass. It was 41 feet long and could achieve Mach 4 (3,045 mph). It had a range of about 90 miles and an altitude of about 100,000 feet. It was able to counter a formation of bombers as well as ICBMs evolving at the time. Ultimately, it was deployed to 130 bases in the U.S. alone. The last Nike Hercules battery was deactivated in Europe in 1988.
I like to remind myself and others that these incredibly expensive and destructive systems were NEVER used in anger. They formed the early backbone of the system of nuclear deterrence which has kept the world “safe” since the end of World War II. The threat of a highly destructive response to a first attack has prevented that first attack for more than 75 years.
You can visit a re-furbished Nike Ajax site outside of San Francisco, CA, in the Golden Gate Recreation Area. It is staffed by volunteers, most of whom manned these missiles in their late teens and early 20s. The missiles were stored horizontally underground, and were brought to the surface on an elevator and pushed into launch location manually, then hydraulically lifted to near vertical for launch. The missile handling systems are still functioning and are demonstrated.
There is so much more to say, but hopefully this is enough to whet your appetite to read some more and perhaps see the museum!
Future blurbs are planned to cover the Titan Missile System and the Minuteman Missile Systems. The Minuteman missiles are still in use, however most of our deterrence is now submarine-based, as we at the U.S. Naval Undersea Museum are well aware!
Diplomacy is best, but until diplomacy is perfect, deterrence remains necessary!