White Sands Launch Complex 38#Aftermath
{{Short description|Missile testing facility}}
{{For|the Kwajalein Atoll Nike Zeus facility|Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site}}
File:111-SC-578560 - Static test of new Nike Zeus ZW-9 Configuration at WSMR - 10 Aug 1960.png
Launch Complex 38 (originally "Army Launch Area Five"){{cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/playingwithfirememoirs/Playing-With-Fire/contents/test-sites/white-sands-proving-ground/white-sands-proving-ground |title=White Sands Proving Ground - Playing With Fire|access-date=2014-04-15}} was the White Sands Missile Range facility for testing the Nike Zeus anti-ballistic missile. The site is located east of the WSMR Post Area.
Background
In February 1957, the prototype Nike Hercules installation was completed at White Sands Launch Complex 37, and a satisfactory flight test was conducted on March 13 (92 Hercules firings through November 13, 1957{{cite book |last=Leonard |first=Barry |year=c. 1986 |title=History of Strategic and Ballistic Missile Defense: Volume II: 1956-1972 |url=http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/bmd/BMDV2.pdf |format=PDF|access-date=2012-09-01 |archive-date=2019-12-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216135402/https://history.army.mil/html/books/bmd/BMDV2.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{Specify|reason=The quote in this citation has "currently" for the "space computational center" of 427M that became operational 1979 and was replaced 1992.|date=September 2012}}--Operation Understanding civilian tours were conducted in 1967.){{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19670602 |title=Unknown}} {{Dead link|date=February 2022 |fix-attempted=yes}} The 1956{{r|FlightGlobal}} Nike II anti-ballistic missile study for an advance Project Nike evolved into the development program for the Nike Zeus ABM{{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Lawrence |year=2006 |location=Fall's Church, Virginia |url=http://www.mda.mil/global/documents/pdf/zeus.pdf |access-date=13 May 2013 |title=Nike Zeus: The U.S. Army's First ABM |oclc=232605150 |publisher=Missile Defense Agency |pp=3–5 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130219034349/http://www.mda.mil/global/documents/pdf/zeus.pdf |archive-date=19 February 2013 |ref=none}} and in January 1961, "ARGMA submitted the “NIKE-ZEUS Defense Production Plan” to the Chief of Ordnance".{{cite web|url=http://www.smdc.army.mil/2008/historical/timelines/smdctimeline1_firstabmsiteinthefreeworld.doc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020033056/http://www.smdc.army.mil/2008/Historical/Timelines/SMDCTimeline1_FirstABMSiteintheFreeWorld.doc |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 20, 2012 |title=SMDC timeline |publisher=smdc.army.mil|access-date=2014-04-15}} Ascension Island's Target Tracking Radar was checked out on January 16, 1961,{{r|FlightGlobal}} and used to create recordings of radar reception from Cape Canaveral warheads, "chunks of the booster rocket", and "nose cone decoys" during reentry for use as simulated "ghost" missile input during WSMR's Zeus "synthetic intercept" program."{{cite news |date=March 13, 1961 |title=Radar Spots The Big Ones At The Cape |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19610313&id=qpkoAAAAIBAJ&pg=6269,2359408 |newspaper=Miami Beach Morning Journal |access-date=2014-04-12}}
ZAR compound
Deployment of the Zeus Acquisition Radar (ZAR) at the planned Launch Complex began in October 1958{{r|Piland}} near an airstrip.{{r|SitePlan}} The LC-18's rectangular compound for the ZAR buildings at {{Coord|32|24|28.5|N|106|15|25.0|W|notes={{cite web|url=http://www.radomes.org/museum/showsite.php?site=White+Sands+Missile+Range+ZAR+Site,+NM|title=Display site|publisher=radomes.org|access-date=2014-04-15}}}} was begun between AMTC and Oro Grande.{{r|SitePlan}} The ZAR power building housed "nine 1,500kW generators",{{cite journal |publisher=The Technical Editor |title=Nike Zeus: Seventeen years of system growth |url=http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2012/ph241/theodosis2/docs/nikezeus.pdf |journal=Flight International |date=2 August 1962 |access-date=2014-04-11 |quote=During 1956, the Army asked Bell Telephone Laboratories to investigate the feasibility of producing a system which could provide defence against an ICBM. ... During 1957 the Army authorized the long-established Nike team to start the design of the Nike Zeus system... Nike Zeus early test configuration ]... Prime industrial contractor [for Nike Zeus] is the Western Electric Co. ... 1955 Whippany Initial studies by Bell Telephone Laboratories.] ... }} and ZAR initial operation was in June{{r|Alternate}}/July 1961. The HAPDAR (HArd Point Demonstration Array Radar){{cite journal |title=HAPDAR—An operational phased array radar|journal=Proceedings of the IEEE|volume=56|issue=11|date=November 1968|quote=[Nov 1968] The HAPDAR (HArd Point Demonstration Array Radar) described is a multifunction phased array radar in operation at the White Sands Missile Range. The principle design feature is the TACOL (Thinned Aperture COmputed Lens) array.|doi=10.1109/PROC.1968.6773 }} construction began 16 July 1965 in the former ZAR Receiver building.{{cite web|url=http://www.wsmr-history.org/ZeusRadar4.htm|title=White Sands Missile Range Launch Complex 38|publisher=wsmr-history.org|access-date=2014-04-15}}
Launching facilities
The Nike Zeus prototype launching facilities in the design by the Burns and Roe Company{{r|FlightGlobal}} was begun in 1959[http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a175824.pdf Historical Reference Paper #6, NORAD's Quest for Nike Zeus and a YF-12A (a Long-Range Interceptorà, 1 July 1962] and completed in October 1962.{{cite NORAD Historical Summary |version=1962b}} LC-18 had a Battery Control Building ("contained two Missile Track Radars, the Target Intercept Computer, and data communication equipment"),{{r|Alternate}} a Launch Control Building (LCB, now used for the Patriot missile), Launch Cell,{{cite web|url=http://www.wsmr-history.org/ZeusLaunch2.htm |title=White Sands Missile Range Launch Complex 38|publisher=wsmr-history.org|access-date=2014-04-15}} tunnel,{{cite web|url=http://www.dvidshub.net/image/475593/launch-complex-38-tunnel#.UyeKuEnnb4Y |title=DVIDS - Images - Launch complex 38 tunnel [Image 2 of 2]|publisher=dvidshub.net|access-date=2014-04-15}} and nearby tracking radar.{{cite AV media |title=The Big Picture: Tularosa Frontier |quote=This is the housing for a giant radar antenna for the Nike Zeus anti-missile missile. [Sign at minute 17:50:] Systems Test Division Blockhouse Area}} WSMR also had Zeus storage bunkers with sloped ends.{{cite web|title=YouTube video minute 3:00|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_diASJyD8WU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190901185821/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_diASJyD8WU&gl=US&hl=en|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 1, 2019}} The first launch from the LC-38 "R & D underground emplacement" was on April 28, 1960,{{r|FlightGlobal}} and the last WSMR Zeus launch was the 72nd "firing" in December 1963{{cite web|url=http://nikemissile.org/ResearchAndDevelopment/pg13.shtml |title=Nike R&D at White Sands, Zeus, 1954-1970 (page 13)|publisher=nikemissile.org|access-date=2014-04-15}} after 18 failures.{{Cite web |title=Part I. History of ABM Development |url=http://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents/ABM_Bell/ABM_Pt1.htm |publisher=posted at AlternateWars.com |access-date=2014-04-11 |quote=the ZAR represents the most efficient wired-logic system for detection, report sorting, track initiation, and track processing ever developed. Its stacked-array receivers on three rotating arms also provided the highest data rate (measured for full hemispheric coverage) yet achieved, and is not matched even by today's phased-array systems. ... Principal features of the NIKE-X System concept were summarized in a paper, "NIKE-X, Design Approach and Preliminary Description" which was presented at the Anti-Missile Research and Advisory Council (AMRAC) Symposium, April 15, 1963, in Monterey, California. ... TTR No. 4 was changed from a 22- to a 40-foot antenna dish and a wideband 60-MHz coherent system. (See Figure 1-35.) In addition, an X-band receiver system was added to provide telemetry reception from NIKE-X supported RVs equipped with special on-board instrumentation.}}
Aftermath
{{External media|image1=[ Zeus launch from LC-18]}}
The Zeus "Discrimination Radar (DR) and Target Tracking Radar (TTR) were used as part of a re-entry signature studies program"{{r|WSMRhistory}}--"the first successful Athena test missile fired from Utah into WSMR" was in June 1964.{{r|Alternate}} White Sands was also the site of the AMRAD—ARPA Measurements Radar{{cite web|url=http://www.ll.mit.edu/publications/journal/pdf/vol12_no2/12_2ballisticmissiledefense.pdf |title=Ballistic missile defense |publisher=ll.mit.edu|access-date=2014-04-15}}—built 1961-3 for assessing reentry of the Special Test Vehicle of Athena/ABRES firings.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ll.mit.edu/publications/journal/pdf/vol12_no2/12_2ballisticmissiledefense.pdf |title=Radars for Ballistic Missile Defense Research|access-date=2014-04-15|author=Philip A. Ingwersen|author2=William Z. Lemnios |archive-date=2012-05-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521065225/http://www.ll.mit.edu/publications/journal/pdf/vol12_no2/12_2ballisticmissiledefense.pdf |url-status=dead}} In 1965, seven{{cite web|url=http://www.nuclearabms.info/Sprint.html |title=Sprint|author=Mark Paine|publisher=nuclearabms.info|access-date=2014-04-15}} HIBEX missiles were tested at WSMR,{{cite web|url=http://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents/DARPA/DARPA_II_HIBEX.htm|title=III. HIBEX - UPSTAGE|publisher=Alternate Wars|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231121029/https://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents/DARPA/DARPA_II_HIBEX.htm|archive-date=2010-12-31}} and the first Sprint missile launch was at WSMR in November 1965.{{cite web|url=http://www.nuclearabms.info/Sprint.html|title=Sprint|first=Mark|last=Paine}}
Bell Telephone Laboratories{{cite web|url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/Science_and_Technology/DARPA/301.pd|title=Science_and_Technology - DARPA|format=PDF|publisher=dod.mil|access-date=2014-04-15}} started the Multi-function Array Radar (MAR-I) construction at WSMR for Nike-X in March 1963.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJje9lHMIHIC|title=Seize the High Ground: The Army in Space and Missile Defense|first1=James A.|last1=Walker|first2=Lewis|last2=Bernstein|first3=Sharon|last3=Lang|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Government Printing Office|via=Google Books|isbn=9780160723087}} MAR-1 was based on the ZAR, and was the basis for the Kwajalein Missile Site Radar.{{r|LeonardV2}} in September 1968. In February 1974 the last "operational NIKE-ZEUS facility, Target Track Radar-4, ceased operations"{{Cite web |url=http://www.smdc.army.mil/2008/historical/timelines/smdctimeline1_firstabmsiteinthefreeworld.doc |title=SMDC History The First ABM Site in the Free World|access-date=2014-04-15 |archive-date=2013-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130214183552/http://www.smdc.army.mil/2008/Historical/Timelines/SMDCTimeline1_FirstABMSiteintheFreeWorld.doc |url-status=dead }} and during the War on Terror, the tunnel complex was used for simulating a Taliban combat area.