MIM-14 Nike-Hercules

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Nike Hercules missile

Coordinates: 37°49′37.88″N, 122°31′39.18″W

Nike-Hercules Missile, designation MIM-14 (initially SAM-N-25) was a solid fuel propelled surface-to-air missile, used by US and NATO armed forces for high- and medium-altitude air defense. It could also be employed in a surface-to-surface role. The Nike-Hercules system, a follow-up to the Nike-Ajax missile, was developed during the Cold War to destroy enemy bombers and enemy bomber formations, as well as serve as an anti-ballistic missile system. Western Electric, Bell Laboratories, and Douglas Aircraft Company were chief contractors for the system. In addition to the US Army, systems were sold to West Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Greece with deployments in West Germany beginning in 1963 until late 1980's. Nike-Hercules missile systems were also sold to Japan (Nike J), which subsequently upgraded the internal guidance systems by replacing the original vacuum tube systems with transistorized ones.

The Nike-Hercules Missile could be fitted with a nuclear warhead, W31 type, or a conventional T-45 fragmenting warhead. The missile was 41 feet 6 inches (12.6 m) long with a wingspan of 6 feet 2 inches (1.9 m). 145 missile batteries were deployed during the cold war. The missile had a range of about 77 miles (110 km). Because of the missile's effectiveness against certain ICBMs, it was made a part of the SALT I treaty.

When it became apparent that the greatest threat to US National defense was from missiles instead of bombers, most Nike-Hercules units were deactivated. All CONUS Nike-Hercules batteries, with the exception of the ones in Florida and Alaska, were deactivated by April 1974. The remaining units were deactivated during the spring of 1979. Dismantling of the sites in Florida - Alpha Battery in Everglades National Park, Bravo Battery in Key Largo, Charlie Battery in Carol City and Delta Battery, located on Krome Avenue on the outskirts of Miami - started in June 1979 and was completed by early fall of that year. The buildings that once housed Delta Battery became the original structures used for the Krome Avenue Detention Facility, a federal facility used primarily to hold illegal immigrants awaiting immigration hearings.

The US Army continued to use Nike-Hercules as a front-line air defense weapon in Europe until 1983, when Patriot missile batteries were deployed. NATO units from West Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Greece and Turkey continued to use the Nike-Hercules for high-altitude air defense until the late 1980s. With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the units were deactivated.

The Patriot missile replaced the Nike-Hercules Missile in the high- and medium-altitude air defense roles. Its advantage over the Nike-Hercules system was its mobility. While a Nike-Hercules site could take days to be established, Patriot sites can be established in hours. Patriot also uses a more advanced phased-array radar system and has better missile target tracking.

In 2006, a missile that was being transported in South Korea burned in a tunnel. Many former Nike sites in the USA and abroad still exist though only a few have been preserved. One, SF-88L north of the Golden Gate is being maintained as a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, complete with an operating underground missile shelter, Cold War period-uniformed staff, RADAR guidance systems, and period vehicles and equipment.

The Nike Hercules and Nike Ajax was comparable to the Soviet SA-2 Guideline medium range missile, but few were fired in combat. The Soviet missile saw considerable use during the Vietnam War against US aircraft. Those missiles were quite effective against aircraft flying at moderate or high altitudes, and resulted in elaborate tactics to either fly under the effective minimum altitude, or use powerful and sophisticated jamming pods or dedicated electronic warfare aircraft.