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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1338.PDF
FLIGHT International, 2 August 1962 166 The basic Nike system: A, launcher; B, MTR; C, TTR; 0. acquisition radar; G, computer Missiles and Spaceflight A sketch of a typical launch area, and a fuller description of the whole system, appeared in this journal's first annual review of the world's missiles, published on December 7, 1956. While the Nike system was still being developed it was appreciated that it lent itself admirably to being progressively improved by the introduction of better component parts. This policy was put into effect, and the system reliability and performance of existing Ajax batteries have steadily risen in consequence. Today an Ajax battery can consistently exceed the original system design capability, can operate in 60 m.p.h. winds in dust, sand, rain, snow or salt- laden air, and can sustain a rate of fire of roughly a round a minute until all ready-rounds have been used. Officially an Ajax can ""destroy any known operational aircraft." Nevertheless by 1953 it was clear that the lethality of the system was in many respects limited by the missile itself, and the design of a completely new missile, named Nike Hercules, was put in hand. As the data emphasize, it is larger and heavier than Ajax, yet it was designed to be compatible with the same storage, ready rooms, ground-handling, launcher, and fire-control radars as were already in use with the earlier missile. However, the Hercules has enabled the overall system performance to be extended so greatly that in most instances it has been installed in completely new bat teries; 19 of the original Ajax battalions in CONUS were turned over to the National Guard, but these too are fast converting to Hercules. Specifically, Hercules has greatly increased effectiveness at both very high and low altitudes, can carry a nuclear warhead, and has nearly four times the range of Ajax. A Hercules battery includes a director station, tracking station and acquisition radar, in addition to the TTR, MTR and computer. The majority of units, both in CONUS and elsewhere, are integrated into national or supranational defence systems, but a Hercules battery can function with complete autonomy. If necessary it can operate against surface targets, provided their precise location is known. It is possible to enter the necessary data into the computer in approximately five minutes. The missile is then launched and guided by the MTR towards an aiming point high over the target. At the correct instant the MTR issues a dive command and the nuclear warhead is detonated by a barometric fuse. Hercules became operational on site in June 1958, and initial production requirements (except for INH conversion kits, dis cussed presently) were fulfilled by December 1960. More than 80 batteries equipped with Hercules are at instant readiness in CONUS, and probably about 40 in other locations. During 1958 the system was examined to determine whether it could be made mobile, and thus defend a field army, and a mobility kit for the standard launcher and a completely new series of GOER transporter-launchers were evaluated in field trials. Hercules naturally incorporated many of the lessons learned with Ajax, but it has likewise proved amenable to continual improve ment. The ethylene-oxide turbopump for the airborne hydraulics was replaced by a battery-powered system, and the original Ni-Cd battery was changed for one with a solid-state electrolyte. More drastic changes followed, and new ground equipment led to Improved Nike Hercules or INH. This incorporates improvements to the TTR, presentation and tactical controls, plus a further acquisi tion radar, the HIPAR, capable of detecting any aircraft at extreme range and height despite an intense ECM (electronic counter- measures) environment, and the TRR target-ranging radar which smro Nike Hercules (left) and Nike Ajax helps the TTR by having many new circuits able to meet sophisti cated ECM threats. CONUS Hercules units are steadily being up-graded by kits, some of which do not include HIPAR. Proof of what INH can do were the destruction of a Corporal ballistic missile on June 3, 1960, and the interception of one Hercules by another in August 1960. The latter took place at 32 miles at about 60,000ft with a closing speed in exceess of Mach 7. Zeus During 1956 the Army asked Bell Telephone Laboratories to investigate the feasibility of producing a system which could provide defence against an ICBM. There were two lines of approach: a detailed study of how much could be achieved with any conceivable modification of the INH system then under development; and an uninhibited investigation into all possible methods. Modification of the existing Nike system committed the scheme to interception of the enemy re-entry vehicle at a realtively late stage in its ballistic trajectory. This is obviously undesirable. The radar cross-section of an ICBM re-entry vehicle is very small, and its characteristic "signature" varies with configuration and size, re-entry velocity and angle of attack and with a number of atmo spheric factors, and at this stage of the mission may be obscured by various decoys. The sheer speed of the vehicle means that the entire interception must be accomplished against the clock to such an extent that the survival of a city may depend upon hundredths of a second, with no possibility of success should any part of the defending system malfunction. Finally, the enemy warhead must be either rendered harmless or be detonated high enough for no harm to be done on the ground below. In spite of these objections, interception of the descending war head appeared to be the only solution possible within a reasonable time-scale. During 1957 the Army authorized the long<stablished Nike team to start the design of the Nike Zeus system—the first. and so far only, anti-ICBM system in the West. Simple calculations show that the enemy warhead must be inter cepted more than 100 miles above the country being defended. Plotting the ICBM re-entry backwards at a rate of some five miles per second, the whole process appears to defeat its own ends. The need to detect, identify and plot the trajectory of the target imposes a minimum time which must elapse before the defending Zeus can be fired. There are two main conclusions: the tiny target must be picked up and accurately plotted by radar at distances of the order of 1,000 miles; and the Zeus must rise out of its hole in the ground and reach the point of interception at an average speed higher than a mile a second. Eleven-ton Zeus takes off like a bullet; and it leaves behind it a gun consisting of some of the most ad vanced and most powerful electronics in the world.
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