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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1339.PDF
ciinf'T International, TAULI 1962 167 1 Aug"- Nike Zeus early test configuration Nike Zeus at White Sands To understand how the system works it is appropriate to outline a typical interception, which is accomplished in some 170 seconds. First hint of an enemy ICBM attack would probably be picked up by a BMEWS radar, but the Zeus is designed to operate without such help. It has its own acquisition radar, or ZAR, and this is the biggest, most expensive and most critical part of the whole system. The acquisition radar of Hercules can detect targets at, say, 200 miles. If the Zeus ZAR can pick up a target at 1,000 miles it must have 25 times as much power—or 125 times, if one considers the radar cross-section of a nosecone to be one-fifth that of a bomber. ZAR is served by nine 1,500kW generators, some held at instant readiness to come on line in the event of power failure. The big cables lead underground to the ZAR transmitter building, in which are 18 megawatt-range klystrons each weighing 1,1001b and encased in lead shields. Their fantastically powerful signal is ducted up to a triangular array of three aerials. From the feedhorn in the centre of each side the signal escapes on to a parabolic reflector and passes out through one of the 80ft-long windows, which are of laminated- glass honeycomb with an integral copper polarizing grid, and pro tected by a pneumatic de-icing boot. The vast triangle rotates at 10 r.p.m. to sweep the sky, and since its radiation is considered lethal at under 330ft radius the whole transmitter is surrounded by a 65ft fence at 350 ft. Even the hangar-size building is skinned in a special alloy to prevent the signal from re-entering. Should an aircraft fly over the ZDC (Zeus defence centre), where the ZAR is located, it would return a signal to the ZAR receiver millions of times stronger than that for which the equipment is designed, and this must obviously be allowed for. What the ZAR is looking for is the characteristic signature of its own target, a relatively small and slender body of revolution hurtling along in outer space some 1,000 miles away. Such a target sends back an unmistakable return signal; but one so faint that the ZAR receiver has to magnify it millions of times. Since return signals may come from a number of targets in any direction, the receiver aerial takes the form of a rotating hemi spherical Luneberg lens with a diameter of 80ft (the same as the length of the three transmitter aerials). The hemisphere is made of 34,484 18in cubes of plastic foam ("42 box-car loads"), each impreg nated with precisely arranged metal filaments. The outer surface is protected against the weather by a 120ft nylon radome and the whole 2,800,0001b of aerial rests on 36 hydraulically balanced shoes moving around a circular track with a diameter of 30ft and sector tolerance of 0.0005in. The aerial is slaved to the 10 r.p.m. of the transmitter, the angular accuracy being measured in seconds of arc. Any incoming signal is refracted in an optical manner by the millions of metal filaments and focused into receiver horns arranged in groups of about 50 in 3ft-wide banks spaced round the hemisphere THE ZEUS TEAM OVERALL cognizance for the Nike Zeus weapon system is held by the Army Rocket and Guided Missile Agency, of the Army Ordnance Missile Command at Huntsville. Alabama. Prime industrial contractor is the Western Electric Co, the manufactur ing and supply unit of the Bell Telephone System, who have been producing proto type radar and electronic equipment at three North Carolina locations (Burlington, Greensboro and Winston-Salem) and special transistors at Laureldale, Pa. System design and research is the responsibility of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Whippany, NJ. These organizations are supported by 14 US Government laboratories and facilities and by thousands of subcontractors, of whom the following are most important. Missile Airframe, motor cases and nozzles, missile-handling and test equipment and delivery of assembled missile, Douglas Aircraft, motor work taking place at Torrance, Cal, and missile assembly at the Charlotte, NC arsenal; finished booster and sustainer and jethead propeilant, Thiokol; guidance stable platform, Lear; accelerometers, Minneapolis-Honeywell; hydraulic a.p.u., AiResearch; control hydraulics, Vickers; warhead, Picatinny Arsenal. ZAR Transmitter, Continental Electronics; aerials, Goodyear Aircraft; dietec/ic materials, Armstrong Cork and Dow Chemical; receiver aerial drive and hydro- dynamic bearing, Westinghouse Electric; reduction gears and azimuth bearings. Western Gear. TTR Transmitter, Sperry Gyroscope, Surface Armament Division; aerial, Allis- Chalmers, Continental Can (mount) and Narmco; aerial gearing and bearings. Western Gear; aerial drive, Vickers. MTR The MTR aerial is by Steel Products Engineering. DR Basic design, Sperry Gyroscope; discrimination technique studies, Avco* Everett Research Laboratories, Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories and Bell Telephone Laboratories; subcontractors, Goodyear Aircraft. Westinghouse, Telecomputing Corporation and Wheeler Laboratories. TIC Remington Rand Univac. Miscellaneous Ground checkout installation, Stromberg-Carlson; tactical displays, Texas Instruments; refrigeration systems, Air Products (for masers) and Arthur D. Little; waveguides, Doehler-Jarvis; megawatt duplexer, Bomac Labora tories; battery packs, Eagle-Picher; rotary joints, ITE Circuit Breaker and FXR; bearings, Kaydon Engineering and Messinger Bearing (radial); RF plumbing, Wheeler Laboratories; technical facilities design. Burns and Roe; design of buildings and utilities. Mobile (Alabama) District of US Army Corps of Engineers; construction of test facilities at Kwajalein, Pacific Construction (Honolulu), Reed and Martin (Fairbanks, Alaska) and H. B. Zachry (San Antonio, Tex). at 120°. The signal strength from each bank of horns varies with the position of the target, and after amplification through a 4°K maser circuit provides azimuth, elevation and range data. Next the system has to decide whether the return signal is really that of an incoming warhead; and it may also have to distinguish between the package of megatons and a surrounding cloud of decoys. It would be easy at this point to be side-tracked into discussing decoys, but the publicly expressed US view is still that the only thing which looks like an ICBM warhead is another ICBM warhead. The US Army and Air Force are co-operating in obtaining actual signatures with both Atlantic and Pacific 1CBM firings, and a great deal should be learnt from such steamy-sounding projects as DAMP (downrange anti-missile programme) and PRESS (Pacific range electromagnetic signature study) and the tracking of Atlas and Titan re-entry vehicles equipped with the cleverest possible decoy systems. (Continuedon page 170 after double-page drawing of Nike-Zeus system)
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