Nike-Hercules - US's Surface To Air Missile with Nuclear Warheads.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- From 1958 to 1979 there were nuclear tipped surface to air missile stationed across the US, ready to defend the country against massed squadrons of Soviet bombers. The Nike missile system began in 1945 and developed a guided missile controlled by a computer on the ground, it would quickly be renamed to Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules which used similar control equipment, but Hercules could carry a W31 nuclear warhead.
Find out more detail from these sites
nikemissile.org/
www.ed-thelen.org/
Visit the Nike Missile Site in Marin County:
www.nps.gov/go...
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Scott Manley: Let me tell you about nuclear tipped anti-aircraft missiles...
Also Scott Manley: Fly safe.
Real slogan among Army Air Defenders
IF IT FLIES IT DIES
The irony is very palatable. :-)
scott putting the kids to sleep: "sleep tight, don't let the nuclear SAMs bite..."
Scott Manley: makes a channel that explains how all rockets are missiles, and basically everything about them.
Audience: guh huh! Irony! I heard of that before! Let me tell someone!
And to top it off he released the video on september 11th
Many years ago, I worked with a person who was in the army and stationed at a Nike Hercules base. He was a radar operator and would pass along stories of the different adventures that had with the missile. One in particular was a training episode when they were tracking any and everything that would fly near them. They were very surprised when they discovered a VERY fast moving target, which they promptly started tracking to see if they could get a firing solution. They found that they could arrive at a firing window but it was so short that it was too late. They later found out that they had been tracking a X15 .
So the missiles were essentially useless by then. Since the X-15 top speed was about Mach 3. My father worked on that program and always told us when to expect a sonic boom, which was not known to the general public at the time. Too bad they didn't notify the tracking operators!
@@funnlivinit I am assuming the X15 came in lower than expected, that by the time a tracking solution was found it was too close.
X 15 has the record at mach 6.7
@@funnlivinit The X-15s highest recorded speed was mach 6.7.
@@viperfan7 Still unbeaten by Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin.
We had these in Italy well into the 2000s. Nike-Hercules was officially decommissioned by the Italian Air Force on June 15, 2007. The last test launch of an Italian Nike-Hercules missile happened on Nov. 24, 2006 from the Capo Teulada range on the Sardinia island.
Carbonara
I was stationed at one of those Italian Air Force missile sites in the Veneto in the early to mid 80's. We were U.S. Army custodial teams for the special warheads. It was great duty for late era Cold Warriors. The Italian Air Force did most of the hard work. The Americans operated in 24 hour shifts, one day on standby, one day on, one day off. We got to explore the region on frequent one day passes. Occasionally we would be invited to dine in the Italian mess. It was a much appreciated break from our Army chow. The presence of the special weapons were supposed to be a secret, but one of the communist Italian newspapers published a map every year with the locations of all the installations.
Look up Basso Tuono. It’s probably the best-preserved Nike site on the planet and it’s in Italy. It’s on my bucket list to see.
@@glennmitchell9107 I served as a radar operator in the major radar station (11° Gr.R.A.M.) in northern Italy in '89 and '90. I remember we had direct communication channels to most of the missile sites in the same area. We worked together on every major exercise. Fun times.
@@glennmitchell9107 are these anti-air only or can they fire surface to surface/anti-ship?
Seeing the old video of those guys pushing the missile reminds me of how when I visited the Nike missile base in Marin some ten years ago as a kid they had a couple of us kids on the tour push the rocket along the track to demonstrate how easy it was to move. Probably one of the only rocket museums where they encourage people to touch and handle the rocket.
Just for reference, the Nike Hercules force alone had 2,550 nuclear warheads produced for it. That more than the US has deployed on all types of nuclear weapons today.
The Nike Zeus Scott shows is the Zeus-A. It was replaced by the Zeus-B (neither of which entered service) which was subsequently replaced by the Spartan in service. The Spartan's 5 MT (with a "mega") warhead was tested in an underground nuclear test in Alaska. (See the Cannikan test.) Other US Surface to Air missiles with nuclear warheads were the Sprint, Bomarc, Talos, and Terrier.
I wanted to write genie but it’s not a SAM but with similar Profil to the Nike system just air born ;)
It's amazing how much GDP went into systems that never entered service. Reading up on the era, it seems like it must've felt like everything was advancing faster than it could be kept in balance.
@@MrTrashmasterfx It had a nuke. That's where the similarity ended. It's range was about 5 miles and no guidance system.
@@franceslarina5508 The nature of the beast. This kind of stuff is so difficult, and takes so long to develop, that if you wait until you need it to start working the problem it's too late.
From 1972 thru 1975 I was on a Nike sight in Germany I worked in the IFC (integrated Fire Control) My job was the MTR (Missile Tracking Radar) operator. I was privileged to participate as a crew member to 3 Live firing at annual Service practice.
Where did you get your training?
Was a 24U Nike Mechanic. 72-74, then reclassified to 24N Chaparral mechanic.
@@kevinbrown7171 Ft. Bliss was the Home for ADA schooling until 2000s when it got ship back to FT.Sill where it wad born.
@@bradhanley8368 my father retired in 72 at Ft. Bliss. He spent most of his career on the Nike program, and later Safeguard. :-)
_"They were never fired in anger."_
Then they have a perfect deployment record. 100% success.
Bingo
Didn't expect you, of all people, to say this, Jack D. Ripper
I keep picturing the launch director sitting there thinking "... just do it".
Good one, but booooooo at the same time! LOL
More please! Loved this content. Would love an episode on analogue computers.
I maintained the analog computer on a few sites in the Baltimore Washington air defense. I hope to talk to Scott. I live here in the bay area near him
@@Utube4chuck That would be cool. Maybe, DM him on Twitter. He seems to be quite approachable. By the way, it seems that we will have to bring back analog computers for machine learning. So, they are the past and the future, like so many other things.
This was great. A family member of mine was just discussing his work with these back in the 60’s. TY for making this video!
As a Cub Scout I toured a Nike-Hercules installation in the Maryland/Washington D.C. area around ‘59-60. I don’t think I was aware of the nuclear warhead capability at the time but as a youngster at that time I know it wouldn’t have been viewed in the same skeptical light as today. It’s scary to think how casually the government viewed testing and deployment of nuclear devices in that era. Living in the immediate vicinity of the nation’s capital we knew that should a nuclear war erupt we would be toast but we kept up the duck under the school desk drills as if we could survive such an attack.
Great video. Around 1995, while living in the Bay Area, I started sniffing around the Milagra Ridge (MR) Nike site (SF51). Some time later, I tagged along with bunch of park-rangers from Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) and started talking to their head historian, who was leading the MR walk. Couple of weeks later, I was asked by him to lead a public walk of the site and pass on everything I had learned about SF51. Was quite surprised at the number of GGNRA staff who also turned up. Had some fascinating conversations with older members of the public who could describe the appearance of the Sweeney Ridge radar control site as well as the launch facility, as seen from outside, many years earlier. Keep up the good work, love what you do. Mark Atherton, New Zealand.
Thanks for this! My dad worked on these during his stint in the Army. He will love this.
One of my buddies was a Nike maintainer. He told me that a great place to catch a quick catnap was between the fins on the upper stage. This had one danger, there was a mechanical cable between the stages that when pulled would ignite the upper stage. Once he woke up with his boot tangled in the cable, but that didn't stop him from napping there.
This brings back childhood memories of reading books about airplanes/rockets/missiles. The Nike/Hercules was my favorite missile just because I thought it looked cool. The F104 Starfighter was my favorite fighter, and the XB70 was my favorite bomber. You might notice a trend there...
F105 = Thunderchief
F104 = Starfighter
@@stevendorris5713 Fast typing.
And Cole would you believe it... this was true as well for the kids living on the opposite side of the iron curtain! When my cousin visited us (he lived in West Germany) he managed to bring with him a paper (cut out and paste...) model of the F -104! I was speechless!! With aluminum foil, it looked so sharp!! Communist propaganda in school never could prevail over those forms... Funny to think... that all those weapons systems could have this never intended "side effect". After all - I am so very glad this conflict ended without any rocket fired in anger!! Michael, Dresden
I'm an old HAWK repairman, so what you have to remember is those old birds used electron tubes, analog syncro's and analog accelerometers and gyros. Anything like a program is hard-wired amplifiers and phase comparators.
As a kid in the 1950's we lived on an island in Puget Sound. On several occasions the Nike base on the island was opened to the public and I remember touring there. I saw the missile launchers and radar installations.
lots of former nike sites in washington state because of boeing, hanford and the large military presence here. strangely though, none of them are very well preserved, some of the launchers are still there, most had the doors removed and were filled in, none of the radar and control sites are intact though.
@@marzsit9833 I remember that were also anti aircraft gun installations at the Nike site and they were spinning them around like they were tracing airplanes.
As a 436.1 Army Nuclear Weapons Assemblyman I worked on several Nike Herc warheads in Europe in the early '60s. I was always amused by one irony of the weapon based on the different perspectives of the Ordnance Corps (which stored and maintained the weapons) and the Artillery Corps (which was responsible for deployment).
For Ordnance, the color green meant "safe to work on" and red meant "armed and dangerous", while for Artillery green meant "armed and ready to fire" and red meant "disarmed". Since Ordnance was in charge of the firing plugs, the green electrical plug meant "safe". But attached to the GREEN plug was a several foot long RED ribbon which was left hanging out the access panel so the Artillery would know which plug was installed. And the reverse for the red "armed" plug with the green ribbon.
There was a white plug too. That was the surface-to-surface option. Contrary to this well-researched video, I doubt the SS option was ever deployed states-side, even at the coasts, but it was available in Europe, intended to surprise the Soviets, though they probably knew.
BTW, the cross-section of the nuclear missile in the video shows a rough approximation of the Mk31 warhead. I'm sorry that the entire Internet does not contain a single picture of the Mk31 because I always marveled at what a gross, ugly, brutal-looking piece of hardware it was.
I have watched 2-3 launches of Nike-Hercules back in 1996 in NAMFI range in Chania - Crete. The loudest sound I've ever heard. The first stage always falling on personel cars or started forest fires :)
Thanks Scott. Love your history videos.
Good video of Nike Hercules systems my father was assigned to Nike site W-26 in 1956 and Ironically I was assigned to my first active duty station HHB 2Bn 1st ADA Nike Hercules Bn at Wackernheim, Germany 1972-1974 I was 18 years old.
that's a significant area denial weapon for sure - crude but effective
My uncle worked on the Nike missile system in the early 1960s, but he never talked much about it, so I really appreciate this look at it!
And I used to own a very simple analog computer kit my dad got me from Radio Shack that could do basic math using the difference in voltage between three potentiometers. You changed the tour of math by changing the labeling of each pot and entered the first two values of your equation on the first two disks and adjusted the third dial until the meter was centered and then read of where the third dial landed when that happened. Super basic, but it did get the idea across.
I've been to the Nike launch site on it Angels island. It's one of the best overlooks for San Francisco you can get.
That one was decommissioned earlier and only used Ajax. Probably a pain to get to the Island.
The test was "Starfish Prime," not "Starship Prime." :) Thankfully, I don't think Elon has launched a nuclear-tipped Starship... yet.
Shhhh don’t give him ideas 😱
My dad was trained as an acquisition radar operator back in the 60’s on Nike’s in White Sands when he was in the Belgian military.
Very interesting vedeo. In 1971 I was a Pershing 1A Missile Guidance and control repairman. The Perhing was a 400 km necular missile. I loved to compare the Nike to the Pershing. The Pershing had an analog guidance computer that was like the rear end of your car. It took the informarion from the accerometer ans determined location and velolcity. The gyros and accerrometers used air bearing and there was a spearical air tank that was wire and fiberglass.
The Pershing could not be shot down because it rentered from outerspace at mach 7 on a good day. The short range ment by the time you saw it comming, you were dead.
The Pershing was some what protected from EMP (electromagnetic pluse). Which is my main topic. The Pershing had a battery of three missiles that needed to be fired at fast as possile before the incomming necular response took us out. We had eight minutes to live after pressing the button. That was the travel time of the Soviet missiles. They knew where we were, but they could not stop the Pershing in the air.
The EMP from the Nike should have scambled the electronics on the incomming aircraft and missiles. It would have been bad for our radar too and any other Nikes in the air at the same time. The EMP was probably studied at the test you mentioned but is most likely still classified. What are your thoughts?
My grandfather worked on the Nike-Zeus! I have a big folder of pictures he took at White Sands, which I really should get around to scanning.
There's a Nike Hercules on display in a park near where I live. A little further north is where a Nike battery was located. Nike Road still exists on top of one of the highest points in the county and set in open farm land. It's on one of my favorite cycle routes.
The old Nike site in San Mateo (SF-51) on sweeny ridge is accessible to the public, basically 24-7. It's one of my favorite hikes in the bay area and it too was practically in my backyard.
I never saw a High explosive round until I went overseas. Our site in the US was 100% nuke.
Overseas, none of the HE rounds had a static probe, or a dummy. They had a nose cap.
Overseas I was on a warhead team. In the US, I was a crewman on a firing battery. Almost 4 years in all.
Visited a bunch of old Nike Sites around Boston and South - One of the old sites at Rehoboth was turned into a National Guard armory which is still active.
I recommend visiting Base Tuono in Italy near Folgaria in the Trentino region. One of the most critical Nike launchsite in Italy. They set up a nice museum there now.
There was an installation in Van Nuys, California, at Victory Boulevard at Woodman Avenue.
It was very impressive to watch them drill if you happened to be there when the doors opened and the NIKEs arose.
Within minutes they were back underground, the crews out of sight as if nothing had happened.
Thousands of people drove by the installation daily without ever knowing what laid there in wait.
Used to use the "Site Bay" Nike Hercules base near Anchorage as a shooting range for years. It was pretty cool to crawl around the old facility and try to determine what the areas were used for.
I taught at the Army's Nike-Hercules radar technician school at Ft. Bliss from 1978-1981. They were just bringing in the Patriot missile when my enlistment ended.
I grew up near the Nike Missile Site in Marin County. On my walk to school each morning, I could see the white radar domes (spheres?) on top of Mount Tamalpais.
We used to play around a Nike site just outside of Chitcago in Addison. All of the steel folding doors were still in place and you could get down underground until they flooded. Great party spot but right in the middle of a swamp.
Growing up there was a Nike Hercules base 5 miles from my house. I was on a field trip there as a little kid with the Cub Scouts, and I was very disappointed that they didn't let us see the missiles.
I live next to U.S. Army Reserve base (which in the past used to be a Nike base, possibly nuclear). Once the Nike base was taken down it was sold to the city and they made a golf course on it (Reserve and golf course are on the same piece of land). What’s odd though is that the old building that housed all of the radar and control equipment is still standing on the base (I’ve heard that building also leads to a tunnel system underground to the missile silos).
What’s even weirder though is that the golf course had a sink hole happen a few years ago which ended up being right on top of one of the existing missile silos (Nike silos were never totally deconstructed). Some of the golf course employees were able to see what looked like tunnels at the bottom of the silo that collapsed.
There are also supposedly some large fuel tanks and other equipment still buried underground that used to be in operation on the base (information is from a friend who works on the golf course).
Nikes had underground storage, but were never in "silos" as far as I know...but the underground barns would sure make for sinkhole material!
The W-31 was also the warhead used in the ASROC depth charge. Only tested once. User's guide (for anyone not paying attention to tests) "Do not fire at less than 5 miles"
There was a Nike-Herc sight at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons station. I remember seeing them as well as the Hawk Missile defense system.
I also live near a former Nike site. The school has their administrative offices in the old barracks and theres a small nature preserve around the site. They park school busses where the launch area was.
I live next to a ridge just north of Seattle known unofficially to local residents as Nike Hill. Most people here are not aware of why it has that name though. It was one of eleven Nike missile sites around Seattle. The missiles were located on that ridge top. The control facility was located on a separate ridge top about a mile away. I believe the other Nike sites around Seattle were configured that way too with separate launch and control sites.
I was a Herc radar crewman in the Army from '68 - '71. Our base, LA-04, was on Mt. Gleason between Palmdale and Pasadena. Nothing left but some foundations and random bits of parking lot pavement now on Google Earth. By the late '60s, the targeting capability of the system had been much improved, apparently. During SNAP (Short Notice Annual Practice) exercises at Ft. Bliss (McGregor Range), warhead detonations a hundred yards (not meters, back then) from the target was a HUGE distance. Typical detonation-to-target distances averaged much less than fifty yards, WELL inside the frag envelope of the usual high explosive warhead. The old training films we saw in AIT were impressive. The later films after several generations of improvements were downright amazing. Interesting times, for sure.
Oh, and I got to track an SR-71 during a joint training exercise. Once. Briefly. We hung with him for probably thirty seconds. He'd toss some jamming at us and we'd manage to hang on. We thought we were BAD! Then he turned our scopes white and disappeared. Also, the published top speed for the '71 is, well, I'll just say it's, uh, conservative. A lot. We found that out just before we lost the track. :)
Thanks for this. I grew up near a BA- battery outside Baltimore MD. Defunct by my earliest memories, I always was fascinated by it.
- Boss our radar is not accurate enough to hit a cluster of target.
- Hmmmp, alright nuclear warhead then!
That escalated way too quickly. lol
Well it is attacking aircraft carrying nukes, it's only fair play.
@@xephael3485 The US had two different air-to-air nuclear missiles, the unguided AIR-2 Genie and a later guided missile. They test-fired one example of the AIR-2 at altitude with, famously, several of the missile's development team standing on the ground underneath the explosion. There's a TH-cam video on the test if you want to see how it went.
@@robertsneddon731 not sure what question you're answering...but interesting information. My comment was arming the ground to air Nike with a nuclear warhead wasn't an escalation..as bombers it would shoot down have nukes onboard too.
I grew up near you, in the East Bay. I remember the Nike radar domes. Dad called them “Giant Golfballs”. One day (1980s?), I looked up-and they were gone.
As a Cub Scout, my pack visited a Nike Base in Mahwah New Jersey. I think they weren't nuclear tipped missiles then. I remember collecting plastic Nike & Honest John missiles given away in cereal boxes. I also remember getting a plastic model Nautilus submarine from a cereal box too. It dove and resurfaced with a dab of baking soda on the bottom. Those were the days!
I agree with comments below - the Sprint missile was a marvel and deserves to be covered. People always refer to how fast it was, but it was accelerating the entire flight so assigning a velocity to it doesn't do it justice. The one metric I always remember about the Sprint was it could go from ground to 120,000 ft in 3.5 seconds. Watch a Sprint launch video on TH-cam and count out 3 seconds and you'll see it's already hit it's target, or is out of visual range.
Folks here on the east coast can learn a lot about these programs at the national rocket center in Huntsville. A lot of those were developed at Redstone range.
I grew up near these 15 to 20 bases that were "hiding in plain site" in and around the Chicago Area. They were all abandoned in the 70's and was an interesting place to "visit" as a teen!
While my father was in the Army, he was stationed at a Nike-Hercules site on a mountain top in Malibu, California (I was a toddler). In the 80s we were watching a movie that showed strategic nuclear missle launch procedures (War Games or Damnation Alley maybe) and he said they would have followed similar procedures if they ever had to fire the Nike-Hercules with nuclear warheads. I had not realized the Nike-Hercules was nuclear until then. Thank God we never had to use that stuff.
As a child living in El Paso Texas, I was privileged to accompany my step-dad, a MS in the U.S. Army, out to the various "sites". I also witnessed at the "shooting range" at White Sands New Mexico, many shoot downs of drones by the Ajax, Hercules and the mighty Zeus! I also got to attend many workshops of various companies. In fact I'm actually surprised that I don't have cancer in my right hand and arm since I used hold light bulbs in front of the wave guides of active Klystron tubes being demoed. Far more powerful than any microwave oven!! Having that around me is probably the actions which set my feet on a path to multi-discipline engineering.
Thaks Scottt. I always wondered about the Nikes because I see their remains everywhere. I have one by me at Fort Dix.
One of my college professors told me a hair raising story back in the 1980s. He was walking outside in the Bay Area (Berkley?) in the 1960s when he heard a familiar sound. He knew the sound from his past work for the military. It was the distinctive sound of a Nike-Zeus launch. Immediately afterwards, sirens went blaring. He never learned if it was a test or a false alarm, but for a short while he was scared spit less that it was the end of the world.
There was one of these sites on top of the hills behind my parents' house (LA-29, in the Puente Hills). Used to see the radar turning on the western hilltop during recess at my elementary school.
Very interesting segway into missile history, certainly wouldn't mind seeing more videos along this vein.
In Sandy Hook NJ they give tours of the old Nike bases. The command/control buildings were mobile, and made of magnesium so in an emergency condition the building would burn like a highway road flare till nothing was left. The windows had quick releases so the people inside could get out quickly. This might be an interesting subject to research.
Really liked this video. I read of the Hercules being described in a book by Spider Robinson, and not only does your video mesh precisely with what was written, but you fill in a few more gaps in my curiosity as well. The video footage also adds more detail. Thanks.
I think it was an article in Air & Space Smithsonian that pointed out that if they were ever fired in anger, the first stages would drop on the cities and suburbs they were clustered around. I guess when defending against nuclear annihilation a few civilian casualties was acceptible.
In Cedar Lake Indiana there's a VFW hall that has a Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules displayed vertically out front. Hearing how big they are is one thing. Standing next to one of those big things is impressive.
Eind jaren 70 was ik hulplanceerder van deze Nike raketten met kernkop, werkte samen met US army in Duitsland. Was een mooi jaar in Duitsland.
If you live in Los Angeles and enjoy urban exploring you can actually explore one of these abandoned installations above porter ranch.
In The Absent-Minded Professor they show Nike sites near DC for an instant (or, at least they show Nike sites like the ones near DC). That's from 1960, so these sites were definitely known to the public. The one in Fairfax, Virginia now has a historical marker on Va 286 near Popes Head Rd.
Nike-Zeus is a great one to read about. It was a brilliant exercise in concept vs. reality: the concept of shooting down an incoming ballistic missile is entirely plausible, and as Nixe-X showed, it was even possible (only just) to work around decoys, radiation screens, and potentially even MIRVs.
But in reality, the work required to _protect against_ twice as many ballistic missiles is always more than the work required to _launch_ twice as many - so unless you're engaging in some seriously asymmetric warfare, your opponent can always out-build you. Then, of course, we get into SDI, the x-ray laser shenanigans, Smart Rocks (which tbh would fit in with the SDA constellation rather well), etc.
Served my german military duty in one of the Nike sites in west germany during the mid eighties. They were than disassembled and I believe sent to turkey. Speaks for the quality
I saw a Nike Herc (as we called them) launch on the Island of Crete by the Germans in 1988. I was there to fire our Lance missiles ( you did a video on the Lance a little while back).
There were the remnants of an installation of these in my childhood park. Super neat.
Really interesting! The Nike System was extensively used by the NATO in western Germany too. There was a big radar dome on a hill next to the area where I grew up, it was the radar of a Nike Hercules site operated by Belgian Forces a few kilometers away. I always tried to get access to the abandoned missile site to take some pictures but the owner doesn't want people in there, unfortunately.
My dad was stationed at the Nike site in Dillsboro, Indiana, part of the Cincinnati Air Defense. I asked him a few times why he never talked about what he did in the Army, and his answer was that he wasn't allowed to. Years later, I learned that the Nike bases carried nukes, the idea that if WW3 actually started, the way to get the Russian bombers was to use a nuke that could take out multiple planes. Remember that back then, the generals believed that a nuclear war was actually winnable. That old base in Dillsboro is still there but has been dismantled for decades and the property acquired by a private party.
Wow, tons of comments. I enjoyed this video specially because it 1967 I avoided being drafted into the infantry by enlisting for Nike track radar mechanic school in Ft, Bliss TX, I graduated top of my class and headed to the Washington Baltimore air defense. The analog computer was one of the pieces of equipment I was responsible for. You did an excellent job on the video. I hope we can find a chance to talk. I have probably forgotten the formulas the computer used, I but I still remember clearly the theory of operation.
What unit were you assigned to. I was at W-92 in Gaithersburg MD 72-73
@@bradhanley8368 I started as a track Radar Mechanic at Tolchester Beach Maryland , across the bay from Baltimore. I went back to Bliss for T1 Electronic Warfare Simulator school. Back to headquarters at Edgewood arsenal. We trucked the T1 to Rockville and the guard base at Lorton Prison VA. Good times!
@@Utube4chuck cool. I reuped in 73 wanted to be assigned to the Seattle area, but got sent to SF-88 instead
I remember my dad taking me out to WSMR and watching him fire these along with the hawk the Rowland and the Chaparral taking out drones, all before he moved on to the Patriot.
So glad you've mentioned the Mythbusters, I'd love to see a collab between you and Adam Savage.
Scott you should look up the fire control systems used on the Iowa class battleships that used an analog computer in their fire control or the TDC that was an analog computer used to guide torpedo's in US WW2 subs.
Here in the Newport News/Hampton area of Virginia, there are a bunch of Nike sites and one of the facts that I thought was really interesting was that their locations were not classified. A person from the Nike program talked to our club and he said that we wanted Russia to know how well defended our coastlines were, so that actively published all the installations. I worked at Langley AFB, and there is a Nike site ( N-93 ) just a mile outside the fence. There is another one right next to Newport News airport (N-85).
Thanks for sharing, I live by a shut down site as well so it’s nice to know what’s in my backyard
One step further than M.A.D. : "if the enemy attacks us, we'll nuke ourselves". M.A.S.D... genius 🙄
This is a nice episode, hope you continue with similar content and style
I enjoyed seeing the view and rockets from the Headlands
There are lots of these sites around. My kid's elementary school is on a former Nike site (it's next to Nike park).
As a young boy, I had a model of a nike. It was a nuke missile, as a toy, for a 10yo.
Times are different now. Some bad, but to myself it is definitely better than parents buying nuke missiles for their young boys is an improvement.
Late to the video. My father was a Nike missile man in New York. Has a few crazy stories, like when the guy doing the morning inspection didn't calibrate the Geiger counter, finally resulting in a general flying up from the Pentagon that afternoon, thinking there was a radiation leak. Transporting nuclear warheads on trucks through Manhattan. Speeding in said trucks, getting pulled over, and pulling guns (and the K-9 unit in the back) on the cop, shouting "You can't stop us! We're reporting you to the FBI!" Which was true - anyone who asked about their cargo or where they were going were to be reported. He had a lot of fun.
The V1 flying bombs were regularly and reliably knock out of the sky by Radar Guided computer controlled guns that had quite an effective range. You see examples of V1's being so destroyed on this video.
I grew up in the Chicago area in the 1950s and saw multiple Nike sites along the lakefront. I had no idea they had a nuclear warhead option.
In the States it was mostly the norm, not an option.
I had just visited this site that you were at on a tour pretty cool thank you for sharing and teaching me more about it
I feel old. They had a missile base near my house in Pa. ohhh…the good old days.
"extra spicy warhead option" LOL!
One of the Amateur Radio clubs I was affiliated with had their meeting place, Field Day activities, and repeater at a former Nike launch control facility near DC. It is now a county park. Most of the buildings are intact, based upon old photos I found of the site. The foundations for the radars are still present. The site has an interesting topography. There is a deep ampitheater-like grading in one area near the control building, I am not certain what the purpose of this was. It's not protecting anything; all structures are well above the grade on a hill, and no launches were made from this place. The launch site is a mile or so away and is now a training school for the state police. At this site, the lift/access doors for the underground "magazine" are visible near a newer garage/outbuilding.
Nice as usual (!), Scott and thanks. That's incredible to see how far the military goes in the delirium during this "cold war" era (on both side).
By the way, these analogous computer were really a tremendous achievement at this time. Such knowledge is probably lost (as medieval forgery) now.
Thanks again.
No, I may be old, but this brings it all back
Awesome video! I keep trying to visit that museum every time I'm in SF but it hasn't been open.
There was a base in Milwaukee Wisconsin in River hills. I did a research project on it.
Main reason the system was ultimately axed was popular opinion, the US populace believed having an interception site close to a city would make the interception site itself a target and attract more fire towards the city.
That probably fed into the determination. But the US agreed to get rid of a certain number of nuclear warheads and a surface to air missile system that had never been used, was going out of date and didn’t help against the real threat was an obvious choice.
@@scottmanley They did try and continue the system after withdrawing it from the cities, moving it to only protect their nuclear silos but lack of public support and the usual senate appropriations shenanigans meant the funds dried up, Nike-X became Sentinel then safeguard with ethos changed from protecting against a full nuclear strike to protection against a limited or accidental strike and despite being theoretically operational without the funds for a full rollout it just withered on the vine.
There was a Nike ( I thought it was called Nike -Zeus) base here in Bear Branch Indiana, I think it is now someone's very cool home. I suppose it was used to help protect the city of Cincinnati, OH and that part of the industrial Ohio river valley. I am probably wrong about it being a Nike -Zeus, base, but that's what we were told when I was a kid.
The analog missile guidance computer knows where the missile is because it knows where it isn’t.
I used to drive up to the Nike missile site in Manchester Connecticut to park on top of a silo and talk on the cb radio..it was the highest location around.
I served at other sites in the 70s and I’ve been there, too. This is the first Fire Control Area I have ever seen that wasn’t on the absolute highest hilltop in its vicinity. It was completely blocked from seeing anything but high altitude targets to the East. Should have been up on the highest ridge along Case Mountain Road, like the one in Meshomasic State Forest.
We had a couple of these sites around Pittsburgh because of the steel mills.
Get us that video on analog computers! I love those clockwork computers!
I grew up near both a control base and launch site for the Nike battery protecting Philadelphia. Wouldn't know if one of them had the "extra spicy warhead" on them as it was southwest over the city.
They were almost ALL nukes.
I have always held an interest in the Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules systems. Many years ago I learned that most of the Nike series missiles and ground control systems were built in my home state of North Carolina. The missiles were manufactured at the Douglas Aircraft complex in Charlotte and the ground control / radar systems were manufactured by Western Electric at the Tarheel Army Missile Plant in Burlington. Nike went on to be the first stage of numerous sounding rockets used for research after being retired from military service. Nike Orion, Nike Thomahawk, and Nike Malemute are just a few examples. Nice that taxpayer money used for defense was to also benefit peaceful scientific research.
If you think analog computers are interesting, just think about what went into the first VT fuses used in WWII. Radome, transceiver, power source, primer charge, and analog circuitry all at the pointy end of a shell experiencing ridiculous G forces.
A fascinating development, one of "the big three" techs of WWII (the others being nuclear weapons and radar).
Plus, I have one sitting on my desk at work. :D