NIKE Hercules nuclear missile
Nike-Hercules Missile seen at the cold war museum at Stevns, Denmark. Nike-Hercules Missile, designation MIM-14 (initially SAM-N-25) was a solid fuel propelled surface-to-air missile, used by US and NATO armed forces for high- and medium-altitude air defense. It could also be employed in a surface-to-surface role. The Nike-Hercules system, a follow-up to the Nike-Ajax missile, was developed during the Cold War to destroy enemy bombers and enemy bomber formations, as well as serve as an anti-ballistic missile system. Western Electric, Bell Laboratories, and Douglas Aircraft Company were chief contractors for the system. In addition to the US Army, systems were sold to West Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway , Denmark (without nuclear warhead) and Greece with deployments in West Germany beginning in 1963 until late 1980's. Nike-Hercules missile systems were also sold to Japan (Nike J), which subsequently upgraded the internal guidance systems by replacing the original vacuum tube systems with transistorized ones. The Nike-Hercules Missile was fitted with a nuclear warhead, W31 type, or sometimes a conventional T-45 fragmenting warhead. The missile was 41 feet 6 inches ( m) long with a wingspan of 6 feet 2 inches ( m). 145 missile batteries were deployed during the cold war. The missile had a range of about 77 miles (110 km). Because of the missile's effectiveness against certain ICBMs, it was made a part of the SALT I treaty.
Size: 5050px × 3354px
Photo credit: © Allan Bergmann Jensen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: air, aircraft, anti, cold, defense, explosive, hercules, military, mim-14, missile, nato, nike, nike-hercules, nuclear, payload, propellant, science, solid, surface, target, war, weapon
