Project Nike was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft missile system, the Nike Ajax, in 1953. A great number of the technologies and rocket systems used for developing the Nike Ajax were re-used for a number of functions, many of which were given the "Nike" name . The missile's first-stage solid rocket booster became the basis for many types of rocket including the Nike Hercules missile and NASA's Nike Smoke rocket, used for upper-atmosphere research.
Fort Totten is a former active United States Army installation in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the Willets Point peninsula on the north shore of Long Island. Fort Totten is at the head of Little Neck Bay, where the East River widens to become Long Island Sound. While the U.S. Army Reserve continues to maintain a presence at the fort, the property is now owned by the City of New York. The neighborhood has buses and served by MTA Regional Bus Operations Q13 and Q16 Buses.
Fort Hancock is a former United States Army fort at Sandy Hook in Atlantic Highlands New Jersey. The coastal artillery base defended the Atlantic coast and the entrance to New York Harbor, with its first gun batteries operational in 1896. The fort served from then until 1950 as part of the Harbor Defenses of New York and predecessor organizations. Between 1874 and 1919, the adjacent US Army Sandy Hook Proving Ground was operated in conjunction with Fort Hancock. It is now part of Fort Hancock Memorial Park. It was preceded by the Fort at Sandy Hook, built 1857–1867 and demolished beginning in 1885.
Ground Equipment Facility J-33 is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar station of the Joint Surveillance System's Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) with an Air Route Surveillance Radar (ARSR-4). The facility was previously a USAF general surveillance radar station during the Cold War.
Highlands Air Force Station was a military installation in Middletown Township near the borough of Highlands, New Jersey. The station provided ground-controlled interception radar coverage as part of the Lashup Radar Network and the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment network, as well as providing radar coverage for the Highlands Army Air Defense Site. The site's 240 acres (97 ha) is now the Rocky Point section in Hartshorne Woods Park of the Monmouth County Parks System.
Fort Heath was a US seacoast military installation for defense of the Boston and Winthrop Harbors with an early 20th-century Coast Artillery fort, a 1930s USCG radio station, prewar naval research facilities, World War II batteries, and a Cold War radar station. The fort was part of the Harbor Defenses of Boston and was garrisoned by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. The fort's military structures have been replaced by a residential complex, including the luxurious Forth Heath Apartments, and recreation facilities of Small Park, which has both a commemorative wall and an historical marker for Fort Heath.
The SAGE radar stations of Air Defense Command were the military installations operated by USAF squadrons using the 1st automated air defense environment and networked by the SAGE System, a computer network. Most of the radar stations used the Burroughs AN/FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitting Set (CDTS) to automate the operator environment and provide radar tracks to sector command posts at SAGE Direction Centers (DCs), e.g., the Malmstrom Z-124 radar station was co-located with DC-20. The sector/division radar stations were networked by DCs and Manual Control Centers to provide command, control, and coordination for ground-controlled interception of enemy aircraft by interceptors such as the F-106 developed to work with the SAGE System.
The 3rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment is an air defense artillery regiment of the United States Army, first formed in 1821 as the 3rd Regiment of Artillery.
Ground Equipment Facility J-31 is a Joint Surveillance System radar site of the Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) and the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control radar network for the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center. The facility's Air Route Surveillance Radar Model 1E with an ATCBI-6 beacon interrogator system are operated by the FAA and provide sector data to North American Aerospace Defense Command. The site provided Semi-Automatic Ground Environment data to the 1959-66 Norton AFB Direction Center for the USAF Los Angeles Air Defense Sector. The site also provided Project Nike data to the 1960-74 Fort MacArthur Direction Center ~3 mi (4.8 km) away for the smaller US Army Los Angeles Defense Area—as well as gap-filler radar coverage for the 1963-74 Integrated Fire Control area of Malibu Nike battery LA-78 on San Vicente Mountain.
Ground Equipment Facility J-36A is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) radar station of the Joint Surveillance System (JSS) in the Western Air Defense Sector (WADS) of NORAD.
The Fort Meade radar station was an air defence radar installation used by the Army and USAF. The site operated c. 1950 until 1979 and had a Project Nike command post and radar network.
The Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System, better known as Missile Master, was a electronic fire distribution center for United States Army surface-to-air missiles. It aimed to computerize Cold War air defense (AD) command posts from manual plotting board operations to automated command and control.
Missile Master was a US Army surface-to-air missile control complex/facility. It controlled Project Nike missiles. Virtually all Missile Masters had a bunker housing the Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System, as well as additional structures for "an AN/FPS-33 defense acquisition radar (DAR) or similar radar, two height-finder radars," and identification friend or foe secondary radar. The radars, along with Automated Data Links (ADL) from remote Nike firing units, provided data into the AN/FSG-1 tracking subsystem with the DAR providing surveillance coverage to about 200 mi (320 km).
The Martin AN/GSG-5 Battery Integration and Radar DIsplay Equipment (BIRDIE) was a transportable electronic fire distribution center for automated command and control of remote surface-to-air missile launch batteries. The solid state radar netting system replaced the vacuum tube AN/FSG-1 at 3 United States Missile Master bunkers and BIRDIEs were deployed at over 25 US locations including Homestead-Miami, Florida; Providence, Rhode Island; and San Francisco. The AN/GSG-5 with 3 consoles was a direction center for up to 16 Nike missile batteries, but a smaller variant with only 1 console and without computer and storage equipment could control only 2 batteries and was the 1st BIRDIE deployed. Several BIRDIE systems were replaced by Hughes AN/TSQ-51 Air Defense Command and Coordination Systems, and the last AADCP with an AN/GSG-5 was at Ft Lawton on July 1, 1973.
The 251st Coast Artillery was a coast artillery regiment in the California National Guard, constituted in 1924 as a harbor defense regiment for the 9th Artillery District and re-designated in 1930 as an antiaircraft regiment. It served in World War II in that capacity.
The Martin AN/TSQ-8 Coordinate Data Set was a Project Nike CCCS system for converting data between Army Air Defense Command Posts (AADCP) and Integrated Fire Control sites for missile Launch Areas. The AN/TSQ-8 in the Firing Unit Integration Facility (FUIF) was first installed for each Launch Area controlled from a Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System and then later for other Nike CCCS. The system included a "data converter, range computer, summing amplifier, status relay panel, status control panel, problem unit, [and] power control panel".
The Nike Ajax was an American guided surface-to-air missile (SAM) developed by Bell Labs for the United States Army. The world's first operational guided surface-to-air missile, the Nike Ajax was designed to attack conventional bomber aircraft flying at high subsonic speeds and altitudes above 50,000 feet (15 km). Nike entered service in 1954 and was initially deployed within the United States to defend against potential Soviet bomber attacks, though it was later deployed overseas to protect US military bases, and was also sold to various allied militaries. Some examples remained in use until the 1970s.
The Fort Heath radar station was a USAF radar site and US Army Missile Master installation of the joint-use site system (JUSS) for North American Air Defense at a former coastal defense site. The Cold War radar station had 2 USAF AN/FPS-6B height finding radars, 2 Army AN/FPS-6A height finders, an FAA ARSR-1 radar emplaced 1958-9, and an Army nuclear bunker. Arctic Towers were the pedestals for the FPS antennas and radomes, while the Air Route Surveillance Radar was on a 50-foot extension temperate tower adjacent to the Federal Aviation Administration building.
NORAD Control Centers (NCCs) were Cold War "joint direction centers" for command, control, and coordination of ground-controlled interception by both USAF Air Defense Command (ADC) and Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM). The Joint Manual Steering Group was "formed by the Army and Air Force in July 1957 to support…collocation" of USAF Air Defense Direction Centers and Army Air Defense Command Posts, which began after a January 28, 1958, ADC/ARADCOM meeting with NORAD to "collocate the Fairchild-Geiger facilities" Army contracts for 5 NCCs had been let by August 17, 1958, after 1956 DoD approval for collocation of interim "pre-SAGE semiautomatic intercept systems" and radar squadrons at 10 planned Army Missile Master AADCPs
Fort Barry is a former United States Army installation on the West Coast of the United States, located in the Marin Headlands of Marin County, California, north of San Francisco. Opened 116 years ago in 1908, the fort was part of the Coast Artillery Corps and operated throughout the 20th century, before its closure and eventual transfer to the National Park Service.
