Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

FROM GUNS TO MISSILES
24. The warhead was the most changed component. It was increased
from the original 200 pounds to 312 pounds and changed in concept from
using large, slow-moving fragments to smaller, faster-moving ones. Initially,
each of the two main charges (150 pounds each) was designed to fragment
into 30,000 pieces each weighing 30 grains (.087 ounces). Later, this was
changed to 60-grain fragments in a 179-pound center and 122-pound aft
warhead. The warhead was designed to “deliver a high order of tactical damage
within a 20-yard radius.” See Cagle, “Nike Ajax,” 87, 89, 154.
25. Bell Labs, 43, 91, 108, 111, 129; and Cagle, “Nike Ajax,” 81, 103–17.
26. Bell Labs, “Project Nike,” 78; and Cagle, “Nike Ajax,” 160, 177–78.
27. Another source gives 15,000 as the total produced. See Tony Cullen
and Christopher Foss, eds., Jane’s Land-Based Air Defence: Ninth Edition,
1996–97 (London: Jane’s, 1996), 290; and Cagle, “Nike Ajax,” 122, 179–81.
28. Cagle, “Nike Ajax,” 167, 182–99.
29. Mary Cagle, “History of the Nike Hercules Weapon System,” April
1973, v, 8–9, 15, 35, 39–40, R.
30. Cagle, “Nike Hercules,” 42–43, 53.
31. Ibid., 57–59, 97.
32. Ibid., 97–99, 102–6; Christopher Chant, Air Defence Systems and
Weapons: World AAA and SAM Systems in the 1990s (London: Brassey’s,
1989), 93.
33. Cagle, “Nike Hercules,” 161–64, 171–72, 187, 192n; and Cullen and
Foss, Jane’s Land-Based Air Defence, 1996–97, 290.
34. US Army Air Defense School, “Air Defense,” vol. 3:48–50; and
Rosenberg, The Air Force, 71, 75, 76, 79, 83, 117–18, 150.
35. See Clayton Chun, “Winged Interceptor: Politics and Strategy in the
Development of the Bomarc Missile,” Air Power History (Winter 1998): 48.
36. Eglin, Nuclear Age, 103, 114, 135–37.
37. Another source states that the Air Force built 570 Bomarcs. See Chun,
“Winged Interceptor,” 50–51, 57; Mark Morgan and Mark Berhow, Rings of
Supersonic Steel: Air Defenses of the United States Army 1950–1979 and Introductory
History and Site Guide (San Pedro, Calif.: Fort MacArthur Museum
Association, 1996), 22, 24; Kenneth Schaffel, The Emerging Shield: The Air
Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense, 1945–1960 (Washington,
D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1991), 236–38; and Eglin, Nuclear Age, 179.
38. Chun, “Winged Interceptor,” 46, 52–53, 55–57.
39. British SAMs are addressed in chap. 4 in a discussion of the Falklands
War.
40. The SA-2 measured 35 feet in length and weighed 4,875 pounds with
its booster. It could carry a 288-pound warhead at Mach 3.5 out to a slant
range of 24–25 miles and was effective between 3,000 and 60,000 feet. Apparently,
the Soviets fired 14 SA-2s at Francis Gary Powers in 1960: 12
missed, one destroyed a MiG-19, and one got the U-2. See R. A. Mason, ed.,
War in the Third Dimension: Essays in Contemporary Air Power (London:
Brassey’s, 1986), 105; John Taylor, ed., Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft,
1967–68 (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1967), 521–22; C. M. Plattner,
109