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Nike site

Started by Nikos, November 06, 2015, 02:52:26 PM

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Nikos

We're the Nike sites that protected the coasts of the US, part of the Air Force? 

Garibaldi

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Quote from: Nikos on November 06, 2015, 02:52:26 PM
We're the Nike sites that protected the coasts of the US, part of the Air Force?

WERE the Nike sites part of the Air Force? No, they were part of the Army. Here is a link to some information. http://nikemissile.org/

*edited TWICE for lack of information on my part*
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THRAWN

There's still a bunch of them around, rotting into the ground. I lived near one in NJ and it was spooooooky in the dark of the fall.
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Garibaldi

Quote from: THRAWN on November 06, 2015, 03:30:08 PM
There's still a bunch of them around, rotting into the ground. I lived near one in NJ and it was spooooooky in the dark of the fall.

My dad used to take me around to where they made the missiles, in Charlotte, when I was a kid. I think they made Nike and Hercules missiles there. It was long closed by the time I came along, as the program had ceased.
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TheSkyHornet

Don't confuse Nike as the blanket term for all missile defense systems (anti-ballistic missiles) positioned around the country. While Nike was an Army project, the Air Force did have their own, very similar, ICBM project known as Project Wizard, although much short-lived. The Army also had Project Zeus which was an alternative to the Nike project, also short-lived. In short, not all missile sites were Nike, though the overwhelming majority were.

The Ground-Based Mid-course Defense system (GMD) is essentially the replacement for the old Nike sites, controlled by the Army. These missiles are used to intercept primarily long-range surface-fired ballistic missiles or those launched from space. They're designed to travel through space, through low orbit, if needed. They're an interception missile to take out incoming nukes, although they can be used to carry nuclear warheads for strike purposes.

Currently, the THAAD system is operated by the Army's Air Defense Artillery branch, which uses mobile ground vehicles for shorter-range interception, similar to the Aegis Combat System used by the Navy on surface ships.

GMD, THAAD, and Aegis are all overseen by the Missile Defense Agency, which is a joint operation of the Department of Defense.

Luis R. Ramos

Those Nike sites were Army, not Air Force.

If you go by them you would not recognize them. The ones that remain look like big, open-air parking lots since the launchers here have been removed. Some of these big "parking lots" are the roofs of the rocket magazines. They have been reused by counties and other uses, some of them are part now of industrial parks, or housing developments.

Around New York City were:

1. Two launch sites at Fort Hancock
2. One launch site at Fort Tilden
3. One or two launch sites at Big Tor mountain in Rockland County
4. One launch site at Fort Wadsworth
5. One launch site at , ohh, forgot the name, there are two small islands between the Bronx and Queens one used as a Potters Field by the NYC DOC. These two islands constituted one fort one had Command and Control the other the launchers
6. Another was the site of the worst peacetime disaster, that killed two Army specialists and ten civilian consultants (or maybe the other way) where one rocket being serviced ignited, and in a chain reaction others ignited, about ten or fifteen blew up in their launchers the warhead of one was found several miles near a house
7. Another launch site at Millers Field...

Many more I do not recall just around one big city.

Really, there is a book titled Rings of Steel. Because these launch sites were all over the place. Several around each big city and industrial complex, they formed... A Ring of Steel.
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Garibaldi

Quote from: TheSkyHornet on November 06, 2015, 03:54:21 PM
Don't confuse Nike as the blanket term for all missile defense systems (anti-ballistic missiles) positioned around the country. While Nike was an Army project, the Air Force did have their own, very similar, ICBM project known as Project Wizard, although much short-lived. The Army also had Project Zeus which was an alternative to the Nike project, also short-lived. In short, not all missile sites were Nike, though the overwhelming majority were.

The Ground-Based Mid-course Defense system (GMD) is essentially the replacement for the old Nike sites, controlled by the Army. These missiles are used to intercept primarily long-range surface-fired ballistic missiles or those launched from space. They're designed to travel through space, through low orbit, if needed. They're an interception missile to take out incoming nukes, although they can be used to carry nuclear warheads for strike purposes.

Currently, the THAAD system is operated by the Army's Air Defense Artillery branch, which uses mobile ground vehicles for shorter-range interception, similar to the Aegis Combat System used by the Navy on surface ships.

GMD, THAAD, and Aegis are all overseen by the Missile Defense Agency, which is a joint operation of the Department of Defense.

There were several other missile types under Nike: Ajax, Hercules, X and Zeus. The factory in Charlotte, which my dad showed me, was one of 2 factories making the missiles initially and the only one making the Hercules variant. I was just reading on this, and this factory was also one of the first to make mass-produced Fords in the early 1920s. It was converted to a war factory during WW2, then converted to the Nike project. It was all part of a larger continental defense system encompassing the Army, Air Force and Navy. Even Canada.
Still a major after all these years.
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Opinionated and wrong 99% of the time about all things

Luis R. Ramos

One of the sites in California has been rebuilt and reopened as a museum. it has a fully-operational missile elevator.

Another site in Florida's Everglades is either being reopened as a museum, or opened already.

What most people do not know is that the Nike-Hercules was designed to carry either a conventional or nuclear warhead...
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TheSkyHornet

Quote from: Luis R. Ramos on November 06, 2015, 04:37:59 PM
One of the sites in California has been rebuilt and reopened as a museum. it has a fully-operational missile elevator.

Another site in Florida's Everglades is either being reopened as a museum, or opened already.

What most people do not know is that the Nike-Hercules was designed to carry either a conventional or nuclear warhead...

I haven't had the chance to go on a tour through one yet. I'd love to some day.  It's those converted houses that creep me out. Not because it was once a missile silo, but that it's a concrete bunker with no windows. Too isolating for me.

MSG Mac

These sites were around every city form the 60's into the 80's. Massachusetts Wing had a Squadron that met in a deactivated silo in the 90's
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Garibaldi

I have yet to see a drive-by post generate so much information as this one did. I enjoyed the you-know-what out of this thread so far.
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Larry Mangum

Quote from: MSG Mac on November 06, 2015, 05:13:14 PM
These sites were around every city form the 60's into the 80's. Massachusetts Wing had a Squadron that met in a deactivated silo in the 90's

That was the Beverly Composite Squadron.
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Nikos

Thanks for the great link about Nike Sites.  I got into a site about something called "Texas Towers" out in the Atlantic Ocean.  They had Air Force crews?  Not Navy?

Garibaldi

Quote from: Nikos on November 06, 2015, 09:27:14 PM
Thanks for the great link about Nike Sites.  I got into a site about something called "Texas Towers" out in the Atlantic Ocean.  They had Air Force crews?  Not Navy?

I think those were under Air Force control. They got their name by the way they resemble an oil rig.
Still a major after all these years.
ES dude, leadership ossifer, publik affaires
Opinionated and wrong 99% of the time about all things

TheSkyHornet

Quote from: Garibaldi on November 06, 2015, 09:29:20 PM
Quote from: Nikos on November 06, 2015, 09:27:14 PM
Thanks for the great link about Nike Sites.  I got into a site about something called "Texas Towers" out in the Atlantic Ocean.  They had Air Force crews?  Not Navy?

I think those were under Air Force control. They got their name by the way they resemble an oil rig.

Those were indeed Air Force. They were essentially replaced by the aerial surveillance aircraft/AEW&C. The Navy now operates the Sea-based X-Band Radar which is a mobile rig usually based up near Alaska, monitoring primarily Russia, China, and North Korea. I got to see the SBX when she was parked in Hawaii a while back. Incredible sight.

RRLE

CT had several Nike sites. My wife's family lived near one of them. This web site has info had what happened to a lot of them Nike Sites of CT. There is a photograph on this site showing the current state of the former Fairfield Nike site and data about the others.

Гугл переводчик

While they aren't Nike sites, the city of Mountain Home in Idaho has 3 sites that were home to the Titan I. They have since been demolished and one is being used as a hazardous waste storage facility.

Pretty interesting.
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THRAWN

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Luis R. Ramos

Wikipedia has changed a lot. Now they use more referenced sites. I would still have some caveats for using it for serious research... But for general knowledge I turn to it, check the references to see if they seem credible, then go on my way.

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EMT-83

Quote from: RRLE on November 07, 2015, 01:42:00 AM
CT had several Nike sites. My wife's family lived near one of them. This web site has info had what happened to a lot of them Nike Sites of CT. There is a photograph on this site showing the current state of the former Fairfield Nike site and data about the others.
I took Firefighter I at the old Fairfield site, which had been converted in a fire training center. The administration area became classrooms, the foundation of an old building was used a flammable liquids burn pit, and the towers used for ladder and rope work. I haven't been there in better than 30 years, so I have no idea what it looks like now.