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Command and Control
of
Nike Sites

Purpose of "Command and Control"
To direct the available forces to maximum effect.
In the Nike world, I presume the nightmare of any area commander would have been that all available Nike batteries attacked the lead aircraft, killed it multiple times, and let other aircraft sneak in and obliterate his area.

My limited knowledge and experience with Nike Command & Control. -

When I (Ed Thelen) was in the service [1954-early 1957], Nike Command & Control was essentially non-existant. We had sporatic commercial telephone contact with the AirForce "ELKO", north of Chicago, which did not see the various aircraft we saw, and we rarely saw aircraft that they wanted us to track, and they didn't seem to care. They might as well have been on another planet (or in Iraq).

So much for the Air Force.

We, our Army Nike battery at Jackson Park on the Lake Front of East Chicago, occasionally communicated with the adjacent battery to the north (C-40, Burnham Park). Period, that was all. There was a warrent officer at C-40 who had a private plane and was gung-ho about getting our two batteries tracking practice. We seemingly couldn't even coordinate that reliably :-( He also tried to verify the zones that our radars couldn't "see" by flying low patterns to determine the radar shadow volumes - but got nasty notes from the FAA, and seemingly everyone else also :-))
(This is weird - I don't know what organization called our alerts and terminated them. Maybe if I had had my ear on the telephone instead of my nose in the Radar Van I would have remembered. Musta been ELKO.)

So much for the Army.

I am told that the situation got MUCH better a few years later.
Almost all Command and Control information on this web site is from other sources.

Jim Carlile who worked at SAGE at Truax AFB, near Madison, Wis reports:

"The rules of engagement for Nike Missiles were simple and clear. The targets would be engaged at the maximum range of the missile, regardless of who or what was in the target area. This would include Air Force interceptors and hence, the need for a safe exit method."

and in a continuing dialog with Mark Morgan

Mark:

Our main problem at Truax was that the air field is INSIDE the maximum range of all of the Nike Missile batteries in Milwaukee and many in Chicago. Many of the F-106 Pilots were reluctant to break off, especially when they were in a tail chase following their targets towards our batteries. When we explained why it was necessary (a combination of the warhead and engagement rules) they were a little surprised. The next exercise they broke off quickly! Their procedure was to roll out with the belly of their aircraft (strongest part) towards the target.

Jim 
---- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: "Jim Carlile" ; ...


> Jim: I'm a former Naval Flight Officer, A-6 B/N, understand your phrasing 
> and am fully aware of the battles between ADC and ARAACOM/ARADCOM during 
> the 1950s over how to separate the sheep from the goats once the "weapons 
> free" call went out.  I've got a few friends who fought in Vietnam in 
> Intruders who were on the receiving end of friendly fire, although usually 
> it was from rambunctious fighter pukes...MK

Command and control systems used in the [U.S.] Nike world - overview, US Army Air Defense Digest, 1966, US Army Air Defense Digest, 1972.

Missile Master notes

Locations - From Thomas Page, April 11, 2003
... you can "visit" all the Nike Missile-Master sites [using TerraServer] from your living room (or wherever you have your computer set up) --

The Missile-Master blockhouse is seen in these aerial images as a large, square building with two parallel raised ridges running the length of the building. (You can find these sites on the "MapQuest" web site, too, which has color aerial imagery from "GlobeXplorer" in many cases.)

In case you're wondering, my interest is actually from the Air Force side of the story. All ten Missile Master operations were supported by Air Force long-range radar operations, usually collocated at the same site. (So were a number of Missile Mentor sites and maual Nike missile operations.) You can find more about these Army - Air Force joint-use sites on our Online Air-Defense Radar Museum web site at http://www.radomes.org/museum/.

On the left-side menu, under "Contents," click on "Radar Sites" to get a search window. Then enter a name (such as "Fort Lawton") and hit . Click on the link that appears, and you're there. Scroll down, and click on links such as "Photographs," "Recent Photos," etc., for more information. Enjoy! Let me know what you think. Thanks.

-- Tom Page

Early installion history - From Tom Smith
I am unable to e-mail Tom due to troubles with his filter airscreen.net
The first Missle Master site was at Ft. Geo. G. Meade, Md., the second was at The Highlands, NJ. Our site at Ft. Meade was operated by Martin until 1960, in May of that year, they turned it over to the Army. The first unit was Signal Missle Master Support Detachment. Personnel for this site came from Ft. Huachuca and White Sands. All were either Radar techs or Microwave techs.

The data, TDDL, group went thru school at the Air Force base at Buffalo, don't remember name, and the display group went thru school at the Air Force base in Detroit. We all attended prep classes at Ft. Monmouth in1959. Those classes were in basic storage and display circuits.

The group in NY was assigned to Ft. Niagria for rations and quarters. We were there from Jan. 60 to May 60. All classes at both sites were taught by Martin engineers. After the classes were set up at Monmouth, graduates were assigned to Illinois and Missle Monitor school was set up at Bliss.

Ft. Meade had the Baltimore-Washington defense area and The Highlands had the New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia defense area. I assume Illinois had the Chicago-Detroit area.

All for now.
Tom Smith
umlw90@airmail.net

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Updated July, 2006