Home > Project Nike
Project Nike was a US Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Labs, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the world's first operational anti-aircraft missile system in 1953, the Nike Ajax . A huge number of the technologies and rocket systems used to develop the Nike Ajax were re-used in a number of roles, many of which gained the "Nike" name. The missile's first-stage solid rocket booster became the basis for everything from the Nike Hercules missile to NASA's Nike Smoke rocket , used for upper-atmosphere research.1 History
Project Nike began in 1944 when the US military demanded a new defense system to combat the potential new jet aircraft, as existing gun-based systems proved completely incapable of dealing with the speeds and altitudes that such planes operated at. Two proposals were accepted, Bell Labs' development of the WWII German Wasserfall missile for line-of-sight interceptions became Project Nike, and a much longer ranged collision-course system was developed by General Electric as Project Thumper , eventually delivering the BOMARC missile.
Wasserfall had been designed to attack B-17 bombers flying at about 175 mph (280 km/h) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m). For this role the supersonic speed allowed it to be aimed directly at the target; the differences between the missile's line-of-flight and the bomber would be so small by the time it arrived that "lead" was not required. For daytime intercepts a manual radio control system was used, while at night a system flew the missile into the detection beam, which it "rode" to intercept. The high speed did present one problem however; it would be difficult for the operator on the ground to know when to trigger the warhead, and the high speed meant that precise timing was needed or the missile would be too far away to be effective. Several proximity fuseA proximity fuse is a fuse that is designed to detonate an explosive automatically when close enough to the target to destroy it. By sending out radio waves that are reflected by the target and comparing the frequency of the outgoing waves to the incomings were developed for Wasserfall, but none were truly ready for service when the war ended.
Bell's proposal was more complex than Wasserfall due to the increased speeds of the intended targets, Nike would have to deal with bombers flying at 500 mph (800 km/h) or more at altitudes of up to 60,000 ft (20,000 m). At these sorts of speeds even a supersonic rocket like the Wasserfall is no longer fast enough to be simply aimed directly at the target. Instead, the missile must "lead" the target to ensure it hits it as soon as possible, before it runs out of fuel. This means that the missile and target cannot be tracked in a single radar, increasing the complexity of the system. One part was well developed by this point however, as the US already had considerable experience with lead-calculating analog computers , starting with the BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly Kerrison PredictorThe Kerrison Predictor was one of the first fully-automated anti-aircraft predictors fire control systems which would attempt to predict the correct aim at a plane based on simple inputs like the observed speed and angle to the target. Such devices had be and then a series of increasingly capable designs of their own.
For the Nike, two main radarThis article is about the device. For the fictional character in M A S H see Corporal Walter (Radar) O'Reilly. antenna (approximately 40m (130ft) in diameter) rotates on a track to observe activities near the horizon. Radar is an acronym for ra dio d etecs were used, one to track the target and another to track the missile. Using another Wasserfall technique, a radio beacon was mounted on the missile that was detected by a radio direction finderA radio direction finder or RDF is a device for finding the direction to a radio source. Due to radio's ability to travel very long distances "over the horizon", it makes a particularly good navigation system for ships and aircraft that might be flying at, allowing the missile tracking radar to acquire the missile shortly after launch. The prediction systems made operation of the missile considerably simpler; once the radar had acquired the missile, the operators simply had to keep the radars "on target", a task that was largely automated. The computer compared the two radar directions, along with information on the speeds and distances, to calculate the intercept point. Guidance commands were then sent to the missile via radio control. The entirety of this system was provided by the Bell System's electronics firm, Western ElectricWestern Electric was a US electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of the Bell Telephone Company from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management. History.
Another key difference between Wasserfall and Nike was the missile itself. The DouglasMcDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. It has been part of Boeing since 1997. The company was founded from the firms of James Smith McDonnell and Donald Wills Douglas.-built missile was considerably simpler, as advances in rocketFor rocket lettuce, see arugula; for the early steam locomotive, see Stephenson's Rocket, for the sugar candy, see Rockets. A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of a fast moving exhaust from withi design allowed the Nike design to be some 1/3rd the size of the Wasserfall, yet have even better performance. The two stage missile had a solid fuel booster stage and a liquid fuelled (IRFNA/UDMH) second stage. The missile could reach a maximum speed of 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h), an altitude of 70,000 ft (21 km) and had a range of 25 miles (40 km). The missile contained an unusual three part payload, with explosive fragmentation charges at three points down the length of the missile to help ensure a fatal hit. The missile's limited range was seen by critics as a serious flaw, it often meant that the missile had to be sited very close to the area it was protecting.
After bickering between the Army and the Air Force (see the Key West Conference ), all longer-range systems were turned over to the Air Force in 1948. They merged their own long-range research with Project Thumper, while the Army continued to develop Nike. In 1950 the Army formed the Army Anti-aircraft Command (ARAACOM) to operate batteries of anti-aircraft guns and missiles. ARAACOM was renamed the US Army Air Defense Command (USARADCOM) in 1957, it adopted a simpler acronym, ARADCOM, in 1961.
