Missile Master | |
---|---|
CA IL MA MD MI NJ(2) NY PA WA | |
Type | military installations |
Missile Master[2] was a US Army surface-to-air missile control complex/facility.[1][3][4][5] It controlled Project Nike missiles. Virtually all Missile Masters had a bunker housing the Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System,[6] as well as additional structures for "an AN/FPS-33 defense acquisition radar (DAR) or similar radar, two height-finder radars," and identification friend or foe secondary radar[7] (e.g., AN/TPX-19 radar interrogator). The radars, along with Automated Data Links (ADL) from remote Nike firing units, provided data into the AN/FSG-1 tracking subsystem with the DAR providing surveillance coverage to about 200 mi (320 km).[7][8]
Missile Master radars and the control bunker were usually co-located. Sometimes they were co-located with a USAF radar station such as the Arlington Heights Army Installation.[9][3] Conversely, the Fort MacArthur Direction Center used radars ~3 mi (4.8 km) away at San Pedro Hill AFS. The single-site Camp Pedricktown Army Air Defense Base was later reconfigured[when?] to use radar data from Gibbsboro AFS[10] 15 mi (24 km) away.[11]
The Missile Master's two-story fallout-proof & blast-resistant "main building" housed the AN/FSG-1 crew consoles in the "Blue Room" (tiered Antiaircraft Operations Center, AAOC).[2][12][13] The bunker also included an entrance room with decontamination shower,[6] commander's office; separate rooms for the AN/FSG-1 computer (rows of racks/boxes), storage, ADL, and other system equipment; utility rooms for HVAC and other support systems,[12] and a decontamination water storage room under the AAOC. "Our radar must be kept above ground. If that goes, we are out of business anyway" (BGen Robert A. Hewitt), so a less expensive and more vulnerable partially exposed bunker was acceptable for the AN/FSG-1. "Autonomous Operations" allowed remote missile batteries surviving a nuclear strike to launch without AADCP inputs.[14][13]
Installation of a Missile Master took approximately 18 months[15] and required an AN/TSQ-8 Fire Unit Integration Facility (FUIF) be installed at each Nike fire unit to provide the ADL interface between the AN/FSG-1 and the fire control system.[specify] The Highlands Army Air Defense Site was completed at an existing SAGE radar station and cost ~$2 million for the new equipment and ~$2 million for the structures: 170 ft × 90 ft (52 m × 27 m) bunker, power[clarification needed] building,[16] and 4 radar towers[4] (a Missile Master at a new radar station was $9 million).[17] Additional equipment and facilities included tankage for electricity generator fuel, storage for drinking & decontamination water,[18] telephone lines, etc. In addition to the Martin Company's AN/FSG-1 subcontractors, the Corps of Engineers hired local construction contractors for the facility structures, e.g., Kirkland Construction for Ft Heath[19] and Rust Engineering for the Oakdale Army Installation[20][21] (the Corps tailored the bunker to each site from the "baseline standard drawings".)[16] Each Missile Master had 200 total personnel, and maintenance of the AN/FSG-1, the radars, and other systems was provided by an Army "Signal Missile Master Support Detachment"[17] of 10-15 soldiers.[22] All of the vacuum tube AN/FSG-1 computers were replaced prior to the end of Project Nike.
External image | |
---|---|
Ft Meade building | |
empty Highlands bunker in 2008 | |
bunker floor plan | |
Arlington Heights AI bunker | |
1961 Arlington Heights site (5 radars) | |
Ft MacArthur bunker | |
sketch of Oakdale complex |
Army Air Defense Command Posts (AADCPs) were still at 5 Missile Masters on July 1, 1973 (CA IL MD NJ WA—all with AN/TSQ-51 CCCS except the Ft Lawton BIRDIE)[23]: C-24 prior to the Army's February 4, 1974, announcement to end Project Nike.[24] The Camp Pedricktown site was designated an historic site in 1998 by the Salem Historic Preservation Office,[25] and documents regarding the Selfridge site have been entered in the Historical American Engineering Record.[12] In 1999 a romantic comedy set at a midwest US Army missile post was published as a paperback with the name Missile Master[26] (the Kansas and Nebraska AADCPs had BIRDIES and never had bunkers.)