Nike Hercules
The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, but could also be fitted with a conventional warhead for export use. Its warhead also allowed it to be used in a secondary surface-to-surface role, and the system also demonstrated its ability to hit other short-range missiles in flight.
| MIM-14 Nike Hercules | |
|---|---|
Nike Hercules missile | |
| Type | Surface-to-air missile |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | |
| Produced | 1948 - 1970s 1980s (upgrades) |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 10,710 pounds (4,860 kg) |
| Length |
|
| Diameter |
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| Wingspan |
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| Warhead | initially W7 (2.5 or 28 kt: 52 later W31 nuclear 2 kt (M-97) or 20 kt (M-22): 45 or T-45 HE warhead weighing 1,106 pounds (502 kg) and containing 600 pounds (270 kg) of HBX-6 M17 blast-fragmentation |
| Engine | Booster:
|
| Propellant | solid fuel |
Operational range | 90 miles (140 km) |
| Flight ceiling | 100,000 feet (30,000 m) |
| Maximum speed | >Mach 4 (3,045 mph; 4,900 km/h) |
Guidance system | command guidance |
Hercules was originally developed as a simple upgrade to the earlier MIM-3 Nike Ajax, allowing it to carry a nuclear warhead in order to defeat entire formations of high-altitude supersonic targets. It evolved into a much larger missile with two solid fuel stages that provided three times the range of the Ajax. Deployment began in 1958, initially at new bases, but it eventually took over many Ajax bases as well. At its peak, it was deployed at over 130 bases in the US alone.
Hercules was officially referred to as "transportable", but moving a battery was a significant operation and required considerable construction at the firing sites. Over its lifetime, significant effort was put into the development of solid state replacements for the vacuum tube-based electronics inherited from the early-1950s Ajax, and a variety of mobile options. None of these were adopted, in favor of much more mobile systems like the MIM-23 Hawk. Another development for the anti-ballistic missile role later emerged as the much larger LIM-49 Nike Zeus design. Hercules would prove to be the last operational missile from Bell's Nike team; Zeus was never deployed, and Hercules' replacements were developed by different teams.
Hercules remained the US's primary heavy SAM until it began to be replaced by the higher performance and considerably more mobile MIM-104 Patriot in the 1980s. Patriot's much higher accuracy allowed it to dispense with the nuclear warhead, and Hercules was the last US SAM to use this option. The last Hercules missiles were deactivated in Europe in 1988, without ever being fired in a military conflict.