List of Nike missile sites

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 NATO alliance, with sites being operated by both American and European military forces. U.S. Army Nike sites were also operational in South Korea, Japan and were sold to Taiwan.
Leftover traces of the approximately 265 Nike missile bases can still be seen around cities across the United States. As the sites were decommissioned, they were first offered to federal agencies. Many were already on Army National Guard bases who continued to use the property. Others were offered to state and local governments, while others were sold to school districts. The leftovers were offered to private individuals. Many Nike sites are now municipal yards, communications, and FAA facilities, probation camps, and even renovated for use as airsoft gaming and military simulation training complexes. Several were obliterated and turned into parks. Some are now private residences. Only a few are intact and preserve the history of the Nike project.
General Belgian Nike info: The Nike missile system was operational in the Belgian airforce from 1959 until 1990. It was organized into a Missile Group (the overall staffing); a Support Wing (tech and log support), and 2 (9th and 13th) Missile Wings, each with 4 subordinate units. All Belgian Nike sites were in the 2 ATAF part of then West-Germany. Their defending area was the industrial Ruhr area.
94th ADA Group, headquartered in Kaiserslautern for most of the Nike-Hercules period had four battalions as follows, with locations:
2/1 ADA headquartered at Wiesbaden Air Base
- A Battery: Wackernheim
- B Battery: Dexheim
- C Battery: Quirnheim
- D Battery: Dichtelbach
5/6 ADA headquartered in Neubruecke
- A Battery: Schoenborn
- B Battery: Wueschheim
- C Battery: Baumholder
- D Battery: Hontheim
2/56 ADA headquartered in Pirmasens
- A Battery: Geinsheim
- B Battery: Landau
- C Battery: Salzwoog
- D Battery: Oberauerbach
3/71 ADA headquartered in Ludwigsburg
- A Battery: Dallau
- B Battery: Grosssachsenheim
- C Battery: Hardheim
- D Battery: Pforzheim
- In Pforzheim (Hagenschieß/Wurmberg), in Baden-Württemberg there is a missile launch site operated by the US-Army until April 1985.
It was part of the Nike-Belt, a defense system which was created to defend Europe against the then newly invented jets. The site fired Nike missiles at potentially incoming jets as part of the Project Nike.
On Okinawa, the 30th ADA Brigade was on Okinawa. On Reversion Day, May 15, 1972, all Nike Hercules missile sites were handed over to the JASDF. Battery B,8th Battalion,3rd Air Defense Brigade was located on the Chinen peninsula in southern part of the island. The U.S. reverted the islands to Japan on May 15, 1972, setting back a Ryūkyū independence movement that had emerged. A Battery was located on Isikawa Dake, the narrow waist of the island. There was also a battery at Naha.
This list is sorted by state. The "Missile type" code indicates the numbers and types of missiles and other installation details. For example, "2AK/18L-H" means the site contained two Nike Ajax magazines (A), located above ground (K), with eight launchers (8L) being converted to Nike Hercules (H). Many listings will have "FDS" following either the control site or launch site heading, which means that the site has gone through the "Formerly-Used Defense Site" program and has been transferred from DoD control to another party. With the exception of Alaska, in which sites were given a specific name, Nike missile sites were designated by a coding system of the Defense Area Name abbreviation; a two-digit number representing the degree from north converted to a number between 01 and 99 (North being 01; East being 25; South being 50; West being 75), and a letter, L = launch site, C = IFC (Integrated Fire Control) site. The Formerly Used Defense Sites (FDS) program processed many former sites and then transferred them out of Defense Department control.
The Alaska Nike sites were under the control of United States Army Alaska (USARAK), rather than Army Air Defense Command.
All of the fourteen sites located within the State of New Jersey were classed in the defense areas for New York (NY-53, NY-54, NY-56, NY-58/60, NY-65, NY-73, NY-80, NY-88, NY-93/94) or Philadelphia (PH-25, PH-32, PH-41, PH-49, PH-58). Refer to the respective sections (New York or Pennsylvania) for the entries related to these sites.
Links: Sandy Hook Tours :: Site NY-56 :: Gateway National Park :: NJ 14 Missile Bases :: NY-56 History :: Trip Advisor :: Highlands Air Force Station :: Nike Missile Locations New Jersey