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NIKE/SAGE Interface
The U.S. Army Nike Missile System was developed in the 1950s to replace radar guided anti-aircraft gun batteries deployed around critical manufacturing and population centers. The system developed by the U.S. Army was the Nike AJAX missile with a range of about 26 miles and a ceiling of about 55,000 feet. The Nike AJAX missile system was deployed between 1954 and 1963.
The Air Force SAGE System served as the primary defense system while the NIKE Ajax sites were in place to take out any enemy aircraft that were not intercepted by the Air Force.
The NIKE sites in the United States were organized into NIKE Defense Areas that usually consisted of an AADCP command post, a long range radar site, and a number of launch site/control site pairs. Many times the command post and the long range radar site were co-located and the long range radar site could be a U.S. Army or U.S. Air Force facility. The command posts evolved into automated operations using a Missile Master FSG-1 system, a BIRDIE GSG-5 system or the Missile Mentor TSQ-51 system.
The SAGE System direction centers and the backup BUIC System could directly send track data and assignments to Nike Missile Master AADCPs. At the SAGE Direction Centers the Army air defense artillery director (ADAD) consoles and a field grade Army ADA battle staff officer coordinates AADCPs.
In 1958 the U.S. Army began to deploy the second generation NIKE Hercules missile with a range of 90+ miles and a 100,000 foot ceiling. The Hercules could carry conventional and nuclear warheads. As the NIKE Hercules was deployed the old AJAX sites were either closed or modified for the Hercules missiles. The last stateside Nike AJAX site was deactivated in 1963. The NIKE Hercules System was deactivated in 1974.
