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Launch Complex 38 (originally "Army Launch Area Five") was the
The Nike Zeus prototype launching facilities in the design by the Burns and Roe Company was begun in 1959 and completed in October 1962. LC-18 had a Battery Control Building ("contained two Missile Track Radars, the Target Intercept Computer, and data communication equipment"), a Launch Control Building (LCB, now used for the
Launch Complex 38 (originally "Army Launch Area Five") was the White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
facility for testing the Nike Zeus
Nike Zeus was an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system developed by the US Army during the late 1950s and early 1960s that was designed to destroy incoming Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile warheads before they could hit their targets. It ...
anti-ballistic missile. The site is located east of the WSMR Post Area.
Background
In February 1957, the prototypeNike 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, bu ...
installation was completed at White Sands Launch Complex 37, and a satisfactory flight test was conducted on March 13 (92 Hercules firings through November 13, 1957-- Operation Understanding civilian tours were conducted in 1967.) The 1956 Nike II anti-ballistic missile study for an advance 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 ...
evolved into the development program for the Nike Zeus ABM and in January 1961, " ARGMA submitted the “NIKE-ZEUS Defense Production Plan” to the Chief of Ordnance". Ascension Island's Target Tracking Radar was checked out on January 16, 1961, and used to create recordings of radar reception from Cape Canaveral warheads, "chunks of the booster rocket", and "nose cone decoys" during reentry for use as simulated "ghost" missile input during WSMR's Zeus "synthetic intercept" program."
ZAR compound
Deployment of the Zeus Acquisition Radar (ZAR) at the planned Launch Complex began in October 1958 near an airstrip. The LC-18's rectangular compound for the ZAR buildings at was begun between AMTC and Oro Grande. The ZAR power building housed "nine 1,500kW generators", and ZAR initial operation was in June/July 1961. The HAPDAR (HArd Point Demonstration Array Radar) construction began 16 July 1965 in the former ZAR Receiver building.Launching facilities
The Nike Zeus prototype launching facilities in the design by the Burns and Roe Company was begun in 1959 and completed in October 1962. LC-18 had a Battery Control Building ("contained two Missile Track Radars, the Target Intercept Computer, and data communication equipment"), a Launch Control Building (LCB, now used for the Patriot missile
The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary of its kind used by the United States Army and several allied states. It is manufactured by the U.S. defense contractor Raytheon and derives its name from the radar compon ...
), Launch Cell, tunnel, and nearby tracking radar. WSMR also had Zeus storage bunkers with sloped ends. The first launch from the LC-38 "R & D underground emplacement" was on April 28, 1960, and the last WSMR Zeus launch was the 72nd "firing" in December 1963 after 18 failures.
Aftermath
The Zeus "Discrimination Radar (DR) and Target Tracking Radar (TTR) were used as part of a re-entry signature studies program"--"the first successful Athena test missile fired from Utah into WSMR" was in June 1964. White Sands was also the site of the AMRAD—ARPA Measurements Radar—built 1961-3 for assessing reentry of the Special Test Vehicle ofAthena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...
/ ABRES firings. In 1965, seven HIBEX missiles were tested at WSMR, and the first Sprint missile
The Sprint was a two-stage, Solid-propellant rocket, solid-fuel anti-ballistic missile (ABM), armed with a W66 neutron bomb, enhanced-radiation thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warhead used by the United States Army from 1975-1976. It was desig ...
launch was at WSMR in November 1965.
Bell Telephone Laboratories started the Multi-function Array Radar (MAR-I) construction at WSMR for 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 ...
in March 1963. MAR-1 was based on the ZAR, and was the basis for the Kwajalein Missile Site Radar
In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...
. in September 1968. In February 1974 the last "operational NIKE-ZEUS facility, Target Track Radar-4, ceased operations" and during the War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...
, the tunnel complex was used for simulating a Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
combat area.
References
{{Reflist , refs= {{cite news , last=Piland , first=Doyle , title=Way Back When. . ... , url=http://www.radomes.org/museum/documents/WSMR-ZAR-WayBackWhen.pdf , newspaper=WSMR newsletter , access-date=2014-04-11 , quote=Launch Complex 38...Site preparation for the TTR arget Tracking Radarbegan in July 1959. ... Site preparation for the Discrimination Radar was started in January 1961. {{cite map , publisher=Federal Government of the United States , title=Site Plan: Nike Zeus Facilities ALA 5 , number=G-720653 , location=reproduced in WSMR newsletter {{cite web, url=http://www.wsmr-history.org/history.htm , title=White Sands Missile Range History, publisher=wsmr-history.org, access-date=2014-04-15 Buildings and structures in Doña Ana County, New Mexico Infrastructure completed in 1961 Military history of New Mexico Rocket launch sites in the United States White Sands Missile Range 1961 establishments in New Mexico