Delta Btry 2nd Bn 1st ADA 32nd AADCOM Nike Hercules Missile site

                   Nike Hercules Missile System Operation

.

  Nike-Hercules Missile, designation MIM-14 (initially SAM-N-25), was a solid fuel propelled surface-to-air missile, used by US and NATO armed forces for high- and medium-altitude air defense. It could also be employed in a surface-to-surface role. The Nike-Hercules system, a follow-up to the Nike-Ajax missile, was developed during the Cold War to destroy enemy bombers and enemy bomber formations, as well as serve as an anti-ballistic missile system. Western Electric, Bell Laboratories, and Douglas Aircraft Company were chief contractors for the system. Nuclear-armed Nike Hercules missiles were deployed in the United States, Greece, Italy, and Turkey, and with Belgian, Dutch, and U.S. forces in West Germany. Conventionally-armed Nike Hercules missiles also served in the United States, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Norway, and Taiwan.The first deployments in Europe began in 1959 and the last nuclear-armed Nike Hercules missiles in Europe were deactivated in 1988. The Nike-Hercules missile systems sold to Japan (Nike J) were subsequently upgraded the internal guidance systems by replacing the original vacuum tube systems with transistorized ones. The guidance and control area (Integrated Fire Control, IFC) was located a distance (about 1 mile) from the area from where the missile was launched (Launching Area, LA). The IFC had an acquisition radar to detect (enemy) aircraft. After detecting and identifying a hostile aircraft this aircraft was followed or tracked in elevation, azimuth and range by a Target Tracking Radar (TTR). An analog (later digital) computer computed a point in the sky where the missile and target should meet (intercept point). After the missile was launched by the Battery Control Officer (BCO) a Missile Tracking Radar (MTR) followed the missile and the computer constantly updated the intercept point even if the hostile aircraft performed evasive actions. Steering corrections were sent to the missile by the MTR. When the missile neared the intercept point a command signal was sent to the missile to explode. To measure the range to the target under jamming conditions the IFC also was equipped with a Target Ranging Radar (TRR). Il MIM-14 Nike Hercules

http://ed-thelen.org/MMS-150-Ch01.pdf     

 Nike Hercules Missile Postcard from the late 1960s/1970s 

  Launcher Area Gate  

                               Nike Hercules Missile Crewman Charlie Section Delta Btry 2Bn-1st- ADA -32nd AADCOM

Photo Taken by Stars and Stripes summer 1977

  Nike Hercules Missile  Launcher Area.