The Western Electric ''System 1393'' Radar Course Directing Central (RCDC) was a

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

complex of radar/computer systems within the overall Improved Nike Hercules Air Defense Guided Missile System (separate from the missiles, storage and launch equipment, and command post equipment). The RCDC was installed at the "battery control areas" (Integrated Fire Control areas) of ~ each which was for commanding a nearby missile Launching Area (LA), firing a missile from the LA, and guiding a launched missile to a burst point near an enemy aircraft.

Description

The Radar Course Directing Central included a defense acquisition radar ("ACQR" e.g., General Electric AN/MPQ-43 High Power Acquisition Radar), a Target Tracking Radar (TTR), and a radar/computer subsystem for controlling the

MIM-14 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 ...

. The RCDC Director's Console with 4 cabinets included the electro-mechanical Servo Computer Cabinet with the analog ballistics computer ("Intercept Computer") which calculated the relative location of a launched Nike missile (measured by a Missile Tracking Radar, MTR) to the TTR track of an enemy aircraft or formation. After launch, the ground-controlled interception algorithm guided the missile to a calculated point where the missile was detonated and conventional warhead fragments (3 HE warheads)Nike Ajax System Operation
Techbastard.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-18. or a nuclear warhead's blast were to neutralize the target. The Central also had a mode for surface-to-surface missions to airburst a nuclear Hercules over a ground target, and the RCDC included a Missile Motion Generator to simulate a Nike trajectory. After the 10 Army Air Defense Command Posts with

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 ...

bunkers were operational in December 1960, battery control areas also had an AN/TSQ-8 Firing Unit Interface Facility for the automated data link (ADL) of digital information between the RCDC and the AADCP's Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System. Personnel of the Nike "Fire Control Platoon" at the RCDC included the Battery Control Officer (BCO), IFC crewmen (specialty 16C20 such as Acquisition Radar crewman, TTR elevation operator, MTR Fireman, etc.), Nike Radar and Computer Repairmen (23N2P), Subsequent video regarding "Intercept Computer": (minute 2:00: "This is the Time to Intercept" computer…it is set right now for a half second. At a half second before intercept he campushes this button orburst.") etc.

Transportability

As with preceding Nike fire control systems, the Improved Hercules van trailers (e.g., by Fruehauf Trailer Co.) allowed the RCDC to be transported after the military installation was disemplaced from the station. Van trailers included: *M381A1 Electronic Shop *M424E1 Guided Missile Director Station *M428E1 Guided Missile Tracking Station *XM446 Radar signal simulator *M564, M564A1, M564A2 Shop equipment (3 trailers for "Improved Hercules")

History

The Radar Course Directing Central was an outgrowth of the July 1945 Signal Corps' Project 414A's planne
Fire Direction Center System
and a 1950 prototype computer and console system. Contractor evaluation of the first fire control system for Nike was from January–May 1953, and the "prototype model battery" system for the Nike Ajax was delivered to White Sands Proving Ground on May 15, 1953. The RCDC was an improved fire control system for the Hercules missile based on a 1952 Ordance Corps study for an advanced attack system (Hercules design studies began in February 1953, and personnel training began in 1956). The "Improved Hercules system" was first deployed in 1961 and had "tracking, guidance, and interception" improvements by "modifying or replacing radar and electronics equipment". Plans for the subsequent "Target Intercept Computer" for the Nike Zeus missile ("Athena" by Sperry Rand) had begun by 1958, (cancelled 1961) and the

Nike-X Nike-X was an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system designed in the 1960s by the United States Army to protect major cities in the United States from attacks by the Soviet Union's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet during the Cold War ...

(with Spartan/

Sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace *Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automotive and motorcycle *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, ...

missiles) Central Logic and Control was authorized in 1963. The latter

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring grani ...

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s were never implemented except for Safeguard sites around the

Grand Forks AFB Grand Forks Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in northeastern North Dakota, located north of Emerado and west of Grand Forks. The host unit is the 319th Reconnaissance Wing (319 RW) assigned to the Air Combat C ...

missile silos, and RCDCs were deactivated during the 1974

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 ...

end of Project Nike after the 1971-2

SALT I The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two rounds of bilateral conferences and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War superpowers dealt with arms control in two rounds of ta ...

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

References

External media

{{External media , image
Viewed from left of battery control console
, image
Closeup of PPI display
1961 establishments in the United States 1961 in military history 1961 in science Cold War military computer systems of the United States Project Nike United States Army equipment United States nuclear command and control