"Guy Alcala" wrote in message
. ..
Kevin Brooks wrote:

"Guy Alcala" wrote in message
. ..
Kevin Brooks wrote:

"Mark" wrote in message
m...
Have wondered whether the thinking behind the design was to engage
multiple
bombers (i.e. a formation) with one weapon....

That might have been a more applicable reason behind the larger
warheads
you
found in the SAM's like Bomarc and Nike Hercules,

Definitely. I've got the MICOMA History of the Nike Hercules (and
also
the
Ajax) program, and the Nike Hercules alternative nuke warhead's
primary
role was
to prevent the use of bunching tactics, i.e. coming in packed together
so
that
the bombers appeared as one target on the radar, but far enough apart
that
a
conventional warhead would only get one of them at most, and maybe
none.
The
target handling capacity of the Nike system could only engage one a/c
at a
time,
thus allowing most of them through the missile's engagement envelope.
The
nuke
warhead (IIRR the W-30, the same as used by Talos, and supposedly 5kt)

The nuclear weapons archive indicates the Nike herc actually used the
W-31m,
which came in a total of five yields (1 thru 40 KT), with two different
mods
produced for the Herc (Mod 0 and Mod 2, which I assume means that the 1
KT
and 12 KT versions were available).

http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-4.html

Another source (NPS, surprisingly enoough) claims that they were fitted
with
W-31's and three yield options (2-20-40 KT), and two other sources
indicate
the W-31 with 2 or 40 KT. So from what i can discern, the Nike Herc
carried
the W-31, and nobody can agree as to how many or what yields were
offered.


You're correct on the W-31. I confess I was too lazy to dig out my copy
of the
Nike Herc history to check my memory, butai quick check of the website
listed
below gave the info ;-)

eliminated that option. Presumably it also served as an option of
last
resort
against a single leaker ("Fail Safe", anyone?). The really funny part
is
the
Army had to assure the more clueless citizens worried by living inside
the
booster impact circle, that the missiles would never be launched from
their
operational sites (generally around cities) for training, and that if
the
missiles ever were launched they'd have a heck of a lot more to worry
about than
the minuscule chance of having an empty rocket booster fall on their
house.

ISTR reading of a single test launch from an operational Nike site; IIRC
it
was a coastal site up in New England. But that may be as suspect as the
various yields reported by different sources... We had a Nike site
located
at the old Patrick Henry Airport in Newport News (the launch site was
right
next to the remains of an old WWII POW camp, and the control site was
located about half a mile closer to the runways); great place to root
around
as a teenager after it was shut down by the ARNG (though the missile
launch
pits had been backfilled with concrete rubble). Interestingly enough, we
also had a BOMARC site operating during the same timeframe (though IIRC
it
closed down a year or so earlier than the Nike site) maybe three or four
miles down the road (it is now serving multiple uses, with the
admin/launch
area being the public school bus maintenance facility, and some of the
ammo
bunker areas (located in an industrial/office park) being used by
private
companies).

If you ever get out to the SF Bay Area, you'll enjoy touring Nike Site
SF88 in
the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just across the GG bridge from
San
Francisco. It's a restored Nike Site, with docents who formerly manned
this or
other Nike sites giving tours (first Sunday of each month IIRR). See the
URL
he

http://ed-thelen.org/

Several years ago the then caretaker of the site, the late Col. (ret.)
Milt
Halsey, allowed me to borrow the Nike historical monographs and make
copies (I
see Mr. Thelen has put them on line now), as well as read as many of the
tech
manuals as I wanted to (there were several hundred as I recall, so I
mainly
concentrated on the ones dealing with jamming and the FCS Radar ECCM
modes).

The guy who first taught me how to blow things up was a former 7th SFG demo
sergeant who went to school under the GI Bill and got his chemistry degree;
he now is rather famous in the EOD world ("Popular Science" called him the
"Dean of Bomb Disablement" in a story about his work on the Unabomber's last
device). He did a short stint teaching high school chemistry, which is where
I met him. One of the demo jobs he did that I was able to help him on was
the removal of a load of concrete from a concrete truck (the drive chain had
broken and the operator had just parked it back at the lot and left it, full
of what would became rock-hard concrete). We were drilling and blasting our
way through it, and for one of the shots he pulled out a few chunks of red
plastic/rubber-like material. He grinned at me and asked, "Do you know what
this is?" I shook my head and he continued, "It's the solid fuel from a Nike
Hercules!" We crammed some into a couple of boreholes along with about a
quarter-stick each of dynamite. He had left active duty early when the
Vietnam drawdown got rolling, and had to finish his duty obligation in the
Guard (the only reserve SF unit near us was a USAR unit at that time, and
had no vacancies). His first Guard assignment was to the Nike Herc unit at
Pat Henry, and he had gotten some chunks of the solid fuel when they
demobilized the site. His next Guard job was with a 155mm arty unit--I
*don't* want to know what he might have brought home from that one...!

Brooks


Guy