MIM-3 Nike Ajax

The Nike Ajax was the world's first surface-to-air guided missile and transformed air defense when it became operational at Fort Meade, Maryland, in December 1953. A two-stage supersonic missile designed to defeat high-altitude Soviet bombers, it grew directly from Operation Paperclip, which used German rocket scientists captured at the end of World War II as part of the U.S. rocket program, and its prototype was first launched in 1946. After several redesigns and improvements, the system entered service just after the Korean War and replaced the 75 millimeter Skysweeper and 120 millimeter Stratosphere anti-aircraft gun systems that had defended American cities from air attack. The missile could carry three types of high-explosive warheads and was listed with a length of 32 feet 8 inches, a wingspan of 6 feet 4 inches, a weight of 2,455 pounds, a speed of Mach 2.25, a range of 30 miles, and a ceiling of 70,000 feet. Because Soviet doctrine envisioned atomic bomb-armed bomber formations attacking U.S. cities, a threat that could overwhelm a weapon intended to shoot down single aircraft, the Nike program redesigned the missile and introduced the nuclear-armed Nike Hercules in 1958. The last operational Nike Ajax site in the United States ceased operations in 1964.

Lawton, Oklahoma · United States