MissileThreat.com

Country:	USA
Warhead:	3 HE
Range:	40 km
Basing:	Land
In Service:	1953-1958

Details

The Nike-Ajax, deployed in large numbers across the U.S. from 1953 to 1958, was the world’s first operational anti-aircraft surface-to-air missile system. It was designed to counter the threat posed by long-range Soviet bombers, and was later replaced by the nuclear-armed Nike-Hercules system.(1)

 

By the end of World War II, the U.S. military realized that German advances in jet aircraft, high-altitude bombers, and long-range rockets were making traditional antiaircraft artillery weapons obsolete. The existing gun-based systems were incapable of dealing with these new speeds and altitudes. To combat these new threats, the U.S. military in 1944 initiated Project Nike, the development of the world’s first anti-aircraft missile system. During the early years of the Cold War, as the menace of a Soviet bomber attack grew larger every day, the U.S. worked rapidly to develop what became known as the Nike-Ajax system.(2)

 

The first of its kind, the Nike-Ajax missile itself was 6.4 m long, 0.3 m in diameter, with a wingspan of 1.22 by 0.15 m. It weighed 450 kg (over 1,114 kg with its solid propellant booster). It had a range of between 40 and 48 km, a speed of Mach 2.3 (2,702 km/h), and an altitude of up to 21 km. Its payload included three high-explosive fragmentation warheads mounted in its nose, center, and aft sections. Development and manufacturing responsibility was divided between a team of contractors: Douglas Aircraft, Hercules Powder, Bell Aircraft, and Western Electric.(3)

 

In November 1951, a test Nike-Ajax missile successfully destroyed a target drone.(4) Following this success, the Army rushed the system into production with an initial order of 1,000 missiles and 60 sets of equipment. It planned to deploy the missiles around key urban, military, and industrial locations as a last line of defense against air attack. In December 1953, the first Nike-Ajax was deployed at Fort Meade, Maryland, ushering in the age of the surface-to-air missile. By 1958, the Army had deployed approximately 200 Nike-Ajax batteries throughout the nation.

 

Each launch site was equipped with two or three launching platforms, each with an underground storage magazine, an elevator, and four missile launchers. The missiles themselves were stored underground on rails and brought to the surface by the elevator. Once on the surface, they were transferred to the launchers and raised to an angle of approximately 85 degrees for firing. The missiles were guided from a control area located 0.91 km from each launch area. The control area contained the system’s acquisition and tracking radar. In the event of an attack and an intercept launch, target data from the radars would be transferred via an electronic computer to the missile in order to guide it successfully to its target.(5)

 

The main period of Nike-Ajax deployment lasted four years, from 1953 to 1958. During this period, 350 missile batteries and 13,714 missiles were manufactured. By the late 1950s, however, Army officials had become concerned that Nike-Ajax would not be able to defend against a massive Soviet bomber attack. A new guided missile system was needed that would be capable of destroying entire formations of high-altitude, high-speed aircraft at greater ranges. The Army decided to build a new longer-range surface-to-air missile system armed with a nuclear warhead, the Nike-Hercules.(6)

 

Beginning in 1958, the Army began to replace the Nike-Ajax with the Nike-Hercules.(7) Nike-Ajax batteries were either modified to accept the new Nike-Hercules missile, or deactivated. In November 1963, the Army deactivated the last of the Nike-Ajax batteries at Norfolk, Virginia.(8)

 

 

 

 

Footnotes

 

1. Donald R. Baucom, The Origins of SDI, 1944-1983 (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1992), 7, 120.
2. The Brookings Institution, “Nike Defensive Missiles,” available at http://www.brookings.org/FP/projects/nucwcost/nike.htm, accessed on January 5, 2005.
3. Nike Historical Society, “Nike Ajax Description,” available at http://www.nikemissile.org/Ajax.htm, accessed on January 5, 2005; Redstone Arsenal, “Nike Ajax Description,” available at http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/nikesite/nikeajax.h, accessed on January 5, 2005.
4. Boeing, “McDonnell Douglas History,” available at http://www.boeing.com/history/mdc/nike.htm, accessed on January 5, 2005.
5. Wikipedia.com, “Project Nike,” available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Nike, accessed on January 5, 2005.
6. John C. Lonnquest. and David F. Winkler, To Defend and Deter: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Missile Program, USACERL Special Report 97/01 (November 1996); Redstone Arsenal, “Nike Ajax Historical Monograph,” available at http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/pdf/nikeajax/nikeajax.pdf, accessed on January 5, 2005.
7. Fort MacArthur Museum Association, “The Nike Missile Air Defense System,” available at http://www.ftmac.org/Lanike1.htm, accessed on January 5, 2005.
8. Stephen P. Moeller, “Vigilant and Invincible,” Air Defense Artillery Magazine (May-June 1995).