Nike-Hercules
National Defense against Soviet bombers
The Nike-Ajax (originally just called “Nike”) was a guided, surface-launched, anti-aircraft missile, the world’s first. For all of its advanced features it lacked the ability to distinguish individual planes in a formation. This Nike-Ajax is at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Annex in Chantilly, Virginia.
Another view of the Smithsonian’s Nike-Ajax. The missile’s “kill radius” was too small for its level of accuracy. Existing nuclear warheads were too large for the slim Nike-Ajax so the missile was revised to be larger in the Nike-Hercules design.
Two miniature Nike-Ajaxs on display at the Travis AFB Aviation Museum, in Vacaville, California. You can see part of the Nike-Hercules missiles at the edge of the frame–they appear to be at the same scale as the Ajax moddls–which offers a nice size comparison.
Because the Ajax sites had to be near cities, they had to be put underground to minimize the danger from explosions and accidents. Later those same bunkers would be converted for use of the Nike-Hercules. This missile located at the White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico.
Each Nike launcher typically had twelve missies, with four in the underground launcher area and eight more in a separate storage area. This missile and many others at the White sands Missile Range’s rocket garden.
A Nike-Hercules missile consisted of two main parts: A booster, which would burn for 3.4 seconds but had no control surfaces, and then the missile itself. At the Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque.
The Nike-Hercules was heavily based on the Nike-Ajax. The booster is made up of four of the Ajax boosters with fins added for stability. Photo made at the Nuclear Museum.
At its peak, there were 130 Nike-Hercules bases in the United States alone, with many more overseas. About 25,000 Nike-Hercules were made (it could be fitted with a conventional warhead as well). White Sands Missile Range.
I stumbled upon this missile on my way to the White Sands Missile Range main entrance–it was not in my database. iIt sits on the road coming down the mountain, overlooking the base five miles in the distance.
Like so many displays of nuclear weapons, the informational sign of this unit, at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, gives no hint of its nuclear capability.
A view of some of the internal components of the Nike-Hercules. This image was made at the Nike Site, SF-88, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, near San Francisco, California.
I found this missile at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park. It was in a closed-off area, not in public view, but when I spoke with the docents and shared my project they said they thought they had something for me and opened it up.
The US Army Field Artillery Museum at Ft. Sill is best known perhaps for having the original Atomic Annie but I was surprised to learn upon my arrival there that they have so much more.
The Nike-Hercules was deployed in 1958 and was eventually replaced by the Patriot missile. These two located at Ft. Sill’s outdoor display area next to the US Army Field Artillery Museum.
There was a “semi-mobile” version of the Nike-Hercules. Early versions required some twenty trucks for the radar and a week of calibration once set up. This photo was made at Ft. Sill, in Oklahoma.
The Nike-Hercules is something of a poster child of the ongoing feeding between the military branches. A public debate between the Air Force (which pinned it hopes on the Bomarc) and the Army, with leaks to the press attacking the each other, seems very odd today. This missile is at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The SF-88 Nike-Hercules site near San Francisco has demonstrations of the missile launch bunker every weekend, weather permitting. Here the missile is awaiting its ascent past the protective doors and into launch position.
The doors have started to open and the Nike-Hercules will begin its rise to the surface, in preparation for launch. At the National Park Service’s SF-88 site near San Francisco.
The bunker doors fully open, exposing the Nike-Hercules. Photo made at the SF-88 site near San Francisco.
The missile ascends to the surface on the hills above San Francisco. At the SF-88 Nike site.
The Nike-Hercules angled to the sky and waiting to be launched. Of course, this demonstration model has no fuel. Thsi bunker was one of several in this cluster. This is the view from above the Nike Site SF-88, part of the US National Park system.
As the threat of Soviet bombers decreased ad the thread from ICBMs increased, the Nike-Hercules was slowly removed from service. The Army had hoped to deploy the Nike-Zeus as a replacement but it was not to be. This unit is at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The Nike-Zeus, pictured here at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, would not be deployed but the Spartan missile, which was deployed, based much of its design upon the Zeus.
Another view of the model display case at the Travis AFB Aviation Museum. The size of the nuclear warhead technology at that time necessitated that the Hercules be made substantially larger than the Ajax.
Weapon Specifications
Note that the relationship between explosive power and destruction is not linear—a weapon’s destructive effects grow far more slowly than its explosive power.
Explosive Power
2 or 20 kt (later models)
Hiroshima Equivalent Factor
Up to 1.3x
Dimensions
41 feet (with booster) x 31.5 inches
Weight
10,710 lbs.
Year(s)
Effectively 1958–1975 in USA
Range
90 miles
Purpose
National defense against Soviet nuclear bombers
NukeMap
Simulated destruction of a Nike-Missile above the National Park Service’s Nike Missile Site, in Marin County, California. Click on the map to change parameters.
Videos
These curated videos provide additional context for this weapon — showing test footage, deployment scenes, technical explanations, interviews, or other historical material, allowing viewers to go deeper into the weapon’s design, use, and place in nuclear history.
The Nike Hercules Story 1960, 28 minutes
Nuclear Vault: A public affairs film produced by the Army in 1960 to educate the public on the NIKE HERCULES air defense system.
Nike Hercules Rocket System US Army Documentary 1968, 23 minutes
Video Programmer: Organization, mobility, and equipment of a Nike Hercules battery; characteristics, capability, and operation of the Nike Hercules System.
Nike Hercules a Reality, 31 minutes
A profile of the Nike-Hercules system by the U.S. Army in 1959 as part of their The Big Picture series.
Further Reading
- Wikipedia
- The archives of the Nike Historical Society are a gold mine of information and stories. Some of the pages (such as this one with a fun anecdote about a Nike-Ajax test) don’t seem to be linked from the main page but can be found nevertheless.
- Far and away the best and best-written history of the Nike program is “What We Have, We Shall Defend, Part I” and Part II written by John A. Martini and Stephan A. Haller. They also have a book, The Last Missile Site.
- Another history of the Nike-Hercules, this one from the US Army Life Cycle and Maintenance Command. The links under “options” will take you to PDF files with details on all of the Nike installations (or go directly to them here, and here).
- Ed Thelen maintains a Nike history site–Note especially the first-hand accounts of a Nike-Hercules premature launch.
- The State of Hawai’i, Department of Defense has a scrapbook of images and excerpts from their annual reports on their Nike installations. Adding some detail is John D. Bennet’s “Hawaii Army National Guard Guided Missle Program.”
- The final nuclear atmospheric test by the United States, in 1962, was a test of a Nike-Hercules missile.
- Adam Rawnsley has a great line in his overview of the Nike-Hercules: “In the event that the Cold War ever turned hot, America would nuke the skies above to prevent the Soviets from nuking the ground below.”
- The Nike-Hercules was deployed far and wide and many local governments and agencies keep their history alive. Site (aside from Hawaii, above) include the Florida Everglades, Lincoln, Nebraska, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Washington State, Alaska (note, this page is part of a larger site on Nikes in Alaska), Dichtelbach, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, and many more.