Not a bug, but it's not "realistic to the switch"...:
On plotting table in Ashuluk - targets are numbered in sequence of pickin' them from the list of targets, but I think (and manual says) that they must be numbered in a sequence of detecting (i.e launching).

Eye candy of day

P-14
any guesses on location?



PRV-13 height-finder



5N69
nicknamed "spruce" and "strategic fan" due looks and noise

Thanks for wonderful pictures! If you got me in Facebook you will see me staring in the PRV-13 screen...

I wonder where it is in the simulator.

PRV-13 height-Finder

The question of where in the Dvina in the simulator I have ever seen.

I would like to talk a bit about the fixed US SAM systems...

In 1944 (!!!) the Bell Labs. started the conceptual development of the MIM-3 Nike Ajax system.
Douglas Aircraft was responsible for the missile, while Western Electric for the others.

They envisioned the development of the simplest SAM system.
Beside the target acquisition radar, two similar but independent parabolic antenna would track the target and the command guided missile.



1, TTR (Target Tracking Radar)
3, TAQR (Target Acquisition Radar)
4, MTR (Missile Tracking Radar)
5, Tracking Van
6, Computer system building
7, Fire Control Van
8, Power generator building

After 10 years of development, the 50km range Nike Ajax SAM system fielding started...
... first around the major Metropolises,

1954; Baltimore (7*), Chicago (22), New York (19), Philadelphia (12), San Francisco (12), and Washington (13)
1955; Boston (12), Detroit (15), Hanford (4), Los Angeles (16), Milwaukee (8), Niagara Falls (4), Norfolk (9), Pittsburgh (12), Seattle (11)
1956, Bridgeport (6), Buffalo (4), Cleveland (8), Hartford (6), Providence (7)

... during the second round, the SAC AFB's received SAM defense.
1956; Fairchild AFB (4)
1957; Ellsworth AFB (4), Loring AFB (4), Travis AFB (4)

*number of fielded batteries are in the brackets

Already in 1953, before the actual fielding of the Ajax system started, the question surfaced, how to fight against multiple bomber formations with a single channel (capable of guiding one missile against one target parallel) SAM system.

The twofold solution was the development of the increased range (155km), and nuclear warhead (2kt, 20kt, 40kt) equipped MIM-14 Nike Hercules missile.


Ajax at the background, Hercules at the forefront.

In 1958, utilizing the expanded firing zone, less unit was received the new MIM-14 Nike Hercules missiles.

Baltimore (5), Boston (3), Bridgeport (1), Buffalo (1), Chicago (9), Cleveland (3), Detroit (6), Hanford (1), Hartford (2), Los Angeles (9), Milwaukee (3), New York (10), Niagara Falls (2), Norfolk (3), Philadelphia (5), Pittsburgh (6), Providence (2), San Francisco (5), Seattle (3), Washington (5), Ellsworth AFB (1), Fairchild AFB (1), Loring AFB (2), Travis AFB (2)

Four new batteries were set up in Greenland, around the Thule AFB.

The medium sized, strategically important cities also received SAM defense...

1959; Anchorage (3), Fairbanks (5), Kansas (4), Minneapolis (4)
1960; Cincinnati (4), Dallas-Fort Worth (4), St. Louis (4)
1961; Oahu – Hawaii (4)
1962; Miami (5)

... and further SAC bases received SAM belt.

1960; Barksdale AFB (2), Bergstrom AFB (2), Dyess AFB (2), Lincoln AFB (2), Offutt AFB (2), Robins AFB (2), Turner AFB (2), Walker AFB (2).


From 1956, development started to make the Nike Hercules capable of defeating jamming formations.
The Improved Nike Hercules system upgrade added two new radar sets to the original sites.



1, TTR (Target Tracking Radar)
2, TRR (Target Ranging Radar)
3, LOPAR (Low Power Acquisition Radar)
4, MTR (Missile Tracking Radar)
5, Tracking Van
6, Computer system building
7, Fire Control Van
8, Power generator building
9, HIPAR (High Power Acquisition Radar) building
10, HIPAR (High Power Acquisition Radar) antenna

The TRR tracked the jammer formation in an unconventional 2cm wavelenght, while the HIPAR burned through the jamming with 10MW (!!!) impulses.

The upgrade of the batteries started from 1961, but due to the astronomical cost of the HIPAR, not all sites received it.

From 1960, the development targeted defeating Tactical Ballistic Missiles.
The Nike Hercules ATBM upgrade meant the changing of HIPAR beam, to cover the airspace above the site.
Upgrades of the selected units started from 1963.

This year seen the largest number of SAM units in the USA (77 Nike Ajax, 134 Nike Hercules, and 8 HAWK batteries).
As the Soviet threat was shifted towards ICBM's from bomber formations, the downsizing of the units started.

In 1964, all the surviving Nike Ajax systems were removed from service.

In 1973, all Hercules units, except those around Miami and Anchorage, were removed from service.
In 1979, Miami and Anchorage sites were also decommissioned.

The Nike Hercules missile could be armed with three type of warheads...


HE - High Explosive, T-45 warhead, filled with 625pound (280kg) explosive, and containing 20'000pcs 140grain (~9.1g) fragments.

XS - W-31 M-22 nuclear warhead with 2kt boosted fission charge
XL - W-31 M-23 nuclear warhead with 40kt boosted fission charge, these were replaced during the 70's to W-31 M-97 nuclear warhead with 20kt boosted fission charge.

The launchers were located ~1km from the radars, allowing the MTR to track the launched missile.
In Europe, usually 3 rails were deployed per battery, with 3 launchers per rail.


In the US, as a consequence of the astronomical land prices around the cities, smaller underground launchers were built, 3 rails per battery, with 4 launchers per rail.


At the AFB's, simple revetments were installed, having 3 rail per battery, 2 launcher per rail.


Here is a usual European Improved Nike Hercules site, without HIPAR.


And the firing area, where two rail handled the nuclear capable missiles (in blue).


The Firing Officer workplace...


And the famous selector switch.


In Europe, the mix usually was one rail handling 5~6 HE equipped missile, and two rail handling 2x 1~2 XL (40kt/20kt) and 2x 4~6 XS (2kt) missiles. In the US, the missiles almost exclusively carried a nuclear warhead, more XL than XS.

HE was against slow single targets.
XS was against fast single targets, and small formations.
XL was against large formations, and ground targets.

Wonder about burntrough range against a bomber-sized target...

http://nikemissile.org/IFC/declaimer1.pdf

315 km? That's just....
S-75M has 1 MW and burntrough up to 30 km (with "pencil" beam!)...

10MW beam!
Damn i bet you could feel the heat when you are tracked by that radar, no need for radar warning reciever

Great article!