The Arlington Heights Army Air Defense Site was a

Project Nike Project Nike (Greek: Νίκη, "Victory") was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft mi ...

Missile Master Missile Master was a type of United States Army, US Army United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Missile Command military installation for the Cold War Project Nike, each which were a System of systems, complex of systems and facil ...

site near

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois. It operated from 1960 until 1968. Installation started in late 1959 after the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

had purchased . Adjacent to the Arlington Heights Air Force Station, the Arlington Heights Army

Installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...

opened on October 28, 1960, as the 8th of 10

Army Air Defense Command Post An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

s (AADCP) to have a

Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System The Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System, better known as Missile Master, was an electronic fire distribution center to computerize Cold War air defense (AD) command posts from manual plotting board operations to automated command and cont ...

installed for

Nike-Hercules The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, but ...

command and control. In addition to the Army's 2 AN/FPS-6 radars, the radars of the co-located USAF station provided AADCP data for the 45th Artillery Brigade's control of the

Chicago-Gary Defense Area The following is a list of Nike missile sites operated by the United States Army. This article lists sites in the United States, most responsible to Army Air Defense Command; however, the Army also deployed Nike missiles to Europe as part of the ...

(10 missile batteries and their Integrated Fire Control sites

The vacuum tube AN/FSG-1 was replaced with a solid-state

Hughes AN/TSQ-51 Air Defense Command and Coordination System The Hughes AN/TSQ-51 Air Defense Command and Coordination System was a transportable electronic fire distribution center for automated command and control of remote Nike missile launch batteries. The radar netting system replace the vacuum tube A ...

, which controlled the combined Chicago-Milwaukee Defense Area after the Milwaukee Defense Area merged with Chicago-Gary in 1968.

Project Concise Project Concise was a United States Army program to close military installations after the Vietnam War. The closures included Nike missile launch sites and command posts including Highlands Army Air Defense Site, Fort Lawton, Fort MacArthur, Fort ...

ended the site's Nike operations in 1974, and were transferred to the city parks district. A May 1979 golf course was built near the nuclear bunker—th
Arlington Lakes Golf Club
has with 14 lakes.

Site locations

*Nuclear bunker *Co-located IFC site *Co-located launch site

Notes

References

{{Reflist , refs= {{Cite web , date=October 29, 2006 , title=Corrections to The Second Edition of Rings of Supersonic Steel , url=http://ed-thelen.org/CorrectRSSOct06.html , publisher=Ed-Thelen.org , access-date=2012-04-01 1959 establishments in Illinois 1959 in military history 1974 disestablishments 1974 in military history Buildings and structures in Cook County, Illinois Military installations in Illinois U.S. Army Nike sites