First day out of San Francisco and a cold-war relic caught my eye. In the late 50s and early 60s the US built a network of 280 'Nike' Missile sites, dotted around the major strategic bases and population centres (Nike after the greek goddess of victory - the sneaker gods hadn't been invented yet). Whilst initially the missiles in these batteries were conventional high explosive, as the Cold War deepened, they were soon replaced with nuclear warheads...
Just 10 minutes from the end of the Golden Gate Bridge, this unassuming collection of sheds and hardstanding was actually a silo containing six nuclear warheaded 'Hercules' missiles. The idea was that, combined with radar data, incoming air attackers or indeed ICBMs could be rapidly targeted and neutralised by launching one of these missiles at them. The commander at the site had the choice of hurling conventional explosive Nike Ajax or 2, 10, 20 or 30 kilton nuclear tipped Nike Hercules missiles at targets.
This is the only surviving silo left in the US now. The site has been converted to a working museum by a group of volunteers (the other sites were decommissioned at the end of the cold war or were upgraded to hold who knows what subsequently). Our tour guide walked us round the site with fascinating tidbits on life with 60s era missiles (no computers, all valve tech and the devil's own liquid rocket fuel cocktail). As we were the first tour of the day, he asked us to wait on deck while he 'raised' a missile. Vanishing below ground, there was a pause, then a whine and whir of chunky hardware before the silo doors on the surface dropped open like bomb doors and up this missile comes on it's launch platform with the guide riding shotgun. Straight out of the movies and goosebumps with it.
When asked if we'd like to ride the launcher down into the silo, 15 of us drooled and climbed on board. "For 'health and safety reasons', would you please hold onto the nuclear missile as the lift platform can conk out sometimes". How cool is that?
Our guide explained that from initial detection to launch the best crews could get a missile airborne in just over 6 minutes - at 150db, shooting 300 feet of flame behind it in the process. Then going on to direct it to within 20 feet of the target all with valve-based (no transistors or microprocessors yet) analogue systems. Not bad for early 60s.
Dr Strangelove territory!
ReplyDeleteWere you wearing your Nikes?