Nike Ajax
| MIM-3 Nike Ajax | |
|---|---|
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| General Information | |
| Type | Surface-to-air guided missile system |
| Manufacturer | Western Electric, Bell , Douglas |
| development | from 1945 |
| Commissioning | 1951 (unguided: 1946) |
| Unit price | $ 20,000 (1958) |
| Technical specifications | |
| length | 10.61 m |
| diameter | 1st step: 0.42 m 2nd step: 0.30 m |
| Combat weight | 1,110 kg with booster |
| span | 1st level: 1.62 m 2nd level: 1.37 m |
| Drive First stage Second stage |
Hercules M5E1 solid fuel booster Bell liquid rocket engine |
| speed | Mach 2.3 |
| Range | 48 km |
| Furnishing | |
| Target location | radar-guided command steering |
| Warhead | 136 kg fragmentation warhead in three separate charges |
| Detonator | Radio command |
| Weapon platforms | fixed rocket position |
| Lists on the subject | |
The MIM-3 Nike Ajax is an anti-aircraft missile that was developed as part of the US “Nike” program. It was the world's first guided supersonic anti-aircraft missile to be operationally deployed, but was continuously replaced by its successor MIM-14 Nike Hercules from 1958 onwards.
history
Towards the end of the Second World War , the US Army recognized the need for an anti-aircraft missile in view of the increasing deployment heights and ranges of bombers , the foreseeable introduction of powerful jet aircraft and reports on the status of German missile research. The project was initially referred to as the “major caliber anti-aircraft rocket torpedo”. Then in February 1945 the US Army commissioned the companies Western Electric and Bell Telephone Laboratories , which already had experience with the development of radar and weapon control systems, with a feasibility study of an anti-aircraft missile system. After this study was positive and the general conditions were determined, the development under the name "XSAM-G-7" was decided in mid-1945 and Western Electric was selected as the main contractual partner. Bell Labs (responsible for the radar system and computer ), the Picatinny Arsenal ( warhead ), Aerojet Engineering ( solid and liquid propulsion ) and the Douglas Aircraft Company ( missile ) were included as subcontractors . The original design envisaged the circular attachment of eight solid fuel boosters to the rear of the rocket for the missile.
The first ground test of the rocket took place in September 1946 on the "White Sands Proving Ground" in New Mexico . The first (as yet unguided) launch was carried out a week later, with the missile carrying cameras and gauges instead of a warhead. In 1947, the test flights were continued while experiments were carried out to track targets using a monopulse radar . However, problems with the reliability of the boosters led to considerable delays in the schedule, so that in 1948 it was decided to discard the original configuration and instead use the one-piece booster of the " RIM-2 Terrier " rocket program of the US Navy developed by the Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory adapt. After the problems were solved and the project made rapid progress, a contract was signed in January 1949 with Western Electric, Bell Laboratories and Douglas Aircraft for the production of 1,000 of the "Nike Ajax" rockets, now known as "SAM-A-7" 60 floor installations completed. In February 1951, the first launch of a successful "QB 17" - drone on the testing grounds of White Sands, after which the building was made a teacher battery by the Army Anti-Aircraft Command (ARAACOM) and began the training of crews.
In March 1954, the first regular "Nike Ajax" unit was set up in Fort Meade , Maryland. Over the next four years, around 200 batteries were built around major cities and strategic destinations in the northern United States. However, the replacement by the “MIM-14 Nike Hercules” with a longer range began as early as 1958 , while the “Nike Ajax” was now used by US troops stationed abroad. In the USA, the last "Nike Ajax" battery was deactivated in 1963. A total of 13,714 missiles were manufactured.
As part of the introduction of a uniform identification system according to AFI 16-401 (I), the type designation was changed from "SAM-A-7" to "MIM-3" in 1963.
technology
Missile
The basic shape of the actual missile is a cylinder with an ogival tip and a conical tail. At the bow area of the fuselage there are four delta fins , which are completely moved as rudders, and in the rear third of the fuselage there are four more rigid delta fins, the rear edge of which is designed as a rudder. Starting from the bow, the missile is divided into the following sections:
- Warhead 1 (5.5 kg)
- Power supply, hydraulics, rowing machines, antennas and on-board electronics
- Warhead 2 (81 kg)
- Oxidizer tank
- Fuel tank
- Compressed air storage
- Warhead 3 (55 kg)
- Combustion chamber and nozzle of the cruise engine
Propulsion
The M5E1, a one-piece solid propulsion engine derived from the booster of the RIM-2 Terrier , was used as the starting engine and was manufactured as a subcontractor by the Hercules Powder Company. The engine delivered a thrust of 246 kN for 2.5 seconds and was dropped after the burnout.
The cruise engine was a liquid engine developed by Bell Laboratories that worked with inhibited nitric acid (IRFNA) as the oxidizer and JP-4 as the fuel and delivered a thrust of 12 kN for 21 seconds. The engine was ignited hypergolically by additionally injecting 1,1-dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) during take-off . The burning speed reached up to Mach 2.3, depending on the flight path.
control
The control commands to the rocket were modulated by the fire control system onto the signal from the rocket tracking radar and converted into commands for the rudders via the (analog) on-board electronics. The fins on the bow served as elevator and rudder , the rudder surfaces of the stern fins as ailerons for roll stabilization . The oars were operated hydraulically , and a hydraulic accumulator with 138 bar served as energy storage.
Warhead
The "Nike Ajax" used a conventional fragmentation warhead consisting of " Composition B " surrounded by two layers of 6 mm cube made of hardened steel. The missile's warhead was divided into three separate segments in order to achieve an even distribution of the fragments: In the bow there is a 5.5 kg part, another 81 kg in the middle of the fuselage and a 55 kg part in the Rear. The warhead could be fired in three ways:
1. automatically using a radio command from the fire control computer,
2. manually using a radio command from the battery
operator , and 3. automatically two seconds after the steering signal is interrupted (for self-destruction).
Floor installation
Due to the scope and number of the necessary system components, the “Nike Ajax” was used exclusively from partially mobile or, above all, stationary positions. A regular Nike Ajax battery can be divided into three areas:
1. Battery and fire control with communication and command center, fire control complex, radar installations and the associated control and power supply systems.
2. Launching area with typically nine or twelve launch ramps (three groups of three or four ramps each) and the associated control and energy supply systems. This was placed on the side of the battery that was in the direction of the expected targets, as the rockets started almost vertically and the boosters, which fell back to the ground after the burnout, were not allowed to hit their own position. In addition, a minimum distance between the missile tracking radar and the launching missile was necessary to ensure reliable detection.
3. Assembly and service area for the assembly, storage, refueling and maintenance of the missiles.
In the early days, the ground facilities were built above ground in the form of containers and / or barracks. But they quickly started moving parts of the installation (such as the rocket magazines) to underground bunkers.
Target fight process
A LOPAR (low-power acquisition radar) called LOPAR (low-power acquisition radar) and operating in the S-band with a range of 230 km was used for target reconnaissance , which provided the battery with initial data on the direction and distance of the target and carried out an IFF query. The target data was transferred to a target tracking radar (TTR: target-tracking radar) and a target range radar (TRR: target range radar) operating in the X-band , which now accompanied the target and continuously determined its coordinates in the form of azimuth , elevation and distance . From this, the battery's analog fire control computer calculated the target's course and established an interception point. After the launch of the missile, it was recorded by a tracking radar (MTR: missile tracking radar) that also worked in the X-band and transmitted the current coordinates of the missile to the host computer. The fire control computer now continuously calculated an interception course and transmitted the steering commands to the missile via the MTR. If the coordinates of the target and missile matched, the detonation of the warhead was triggered by radio command.
A decisive disadvantage of this guidance method, however, was that the entire system consisting of a master computer and three radar devices could only pursue and fight one target at a time, which made it difficult to use against bomber groups, for example, and the battery itself could become the target of an attack.
List of user states or stationing locations
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Belgium
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Federal Republic of Germany
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Denmark / Greenland
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Greece
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Italy
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Japan
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Norway
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Taiwan
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South Korea
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Spain
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Turkey
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USA (including Hawaii and Alaska )
See also
literature
- Mary T, Cagle: Historical Monograph of the Nike Ajax Guided Missile System. (PDF) Redstone Arsenal, June 30, 1959, archived from the original on June 24, 2007 ; accessed on January 19, 2016 (English).
- Bill Gunston: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rockets and Missile , Salamander Books Ltd, London 1979, ISBN 0-517-26870-1
Web links
- kml file for "Google Earth" with all stationing locations in Germany
- Directory of US Military Rockets and Missiles: MIM-3 Nike Ajax (English)
- Ed Thelen's Nike Missile Web Site (English)
- a detailed page about the Nike air defense system (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Globalsecurity.org: Overview of missile weapons (engl.) (Consulted on October 7, 2019)
- ↑ AFI 16-401 (I): DESIGNATING AND NAMING DEFENSE MILITARY AEROSPACE VEHICLES (PDF; 492 kB)