Scrapbook 2: Jul 1962 — Nike-Zeus

INTERCEPTION SUCCESS AT 16,000 MPH OVER PACIFIC

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

WASHINGTON, Thursday.

AN American anti-missile missile, the Nike-Zeus, successfully intercepted an oncoming Atlas long-range missile over the Pacific to-day. The Defence Department announcement came three days after Mr. Khruschev’s claim that Russia had anti-missile rockets which could “hit a fly in outer space.”

Mr. Sylvester, an Assistant Secretary of Defence, said to-day that he had no knowledge that Russia had ever matched to-day’s test. He also said that he could not exclude the possibility.

Mr. McNamara, Secretary of Defence, said he was confident that American missiles would be able to penetrate any anti-missile defence system “which has been developed by anyone.”

To-day’s interception was carefully controlled and held in conditions that would hardly occur in wartime. The 48ft three-stage Nike-Zeus missile was fired from Kwajalein Island in the Pacific to intercept an Atlas launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, 4,500 miles away.

NOT NUCLEAR

Warhead statement

Neither missile had a nuclear warhead, but officials refused to say whether either carried conventional explosives. Normally both Atlas and Nike-Zeus have nuclear warheads.

Interception occurred at a probable height of 600 miles. The Atlas would be moving at 16,000 m.p.h.

To-day’s success does not mean America has achieved impregnable missile defences. But it gives the Army, which has spent over £400 million on Nike-Zeus research and development, a strong claim on Mr. McNamara to put the weapon in quantity production.

EARLIER DOUBTS

Lukewarm attitude

Mr. McNamara has been rather lukewarm towards Nike-Zeus. Early this year he spoke of “serious doubts” as to its practicability. He has so far refused to spend money on production as distinct from development.

To-day he said merely that the test “evidences the extensive and continuing nature of the United States programme to understand the capabilities and limitations of anti-missile systems.”

The Defence Department said to-day that there had been a previous similar attempt to intercept an Atlas over the Pacific. It admitted that it “was not a complete success.”

The point of interception over the Pacific of an American Atlas long-range missile by a Nike-Zeus anti-missile missile (RIGHT).

WASHINGTON, Friday.

ROUGHLY 50 more tests of the Nike-Zeus anti-missile missile are due in the next few months over the Pacific. In each case a £700,000 Atlas missile will be launched from California towards Kwajalein Atoll. As the tests progress they will be held under more and more realistic conditions.

Decoys may be used in attempts to confuse the radar of the Nike Zeus. This will test its ability to “home” on its target.

Mr. McNamara, Secretary of Defence, is evidently determined to wait until Nike-Zeus has proved itself in much more warlike conditions than those which existed yesterday before deciding whether to put the weapon into production.

It would cost at least £3,500 million to deploy the Nike-Zeus system in defence of the 27 main population centres of America alone. It would take perhaps four years.

ARMY ENTHUSIASM

No direct hit

In contrast to Mr. McNamara’s reserve, the Army and its friends in Congress are enthusiastic in their reaction to yesterday’s feat. Some are calling it a great breakthrough in weapons development.

Informed sources say the Nike-Zeus used yesterday did not actually hit the descending Atlas nose cone but it came close enough to have destroyed it if the defending rocket had had a nuclear warhead.

Other anti-missile techniques are also being studied in the Pentagon. They include the possibility of launching missile interceptors from satellites. But Defence officials reported early this year that none of these methods had reached the “hardware” stage.

RUSSIAN DEFENCES

Penetration possible

Despite Mr. Khruschev’s claims, American Defence spokesmen doubt that Russia has an anti-missile system in deployment. Mr. McNamara said yesterday he was confident American missiles could penetrate Russian defences.

It may well be, therefore, that for the next few years the only place on earth protected against missile attack will be Kwajalein. The atoll is a 602-acre dot in the Pacific seized from the Japanese in the last war.

Defense Weapon ‘Hits’ Rocket at 16,000 m.p.h.

From Press Dispatches

WASHINGTON—The first successful interception of an intercontinental ballistic missile by a U.S. Army Nike-Zeus antimissile was announced by the Defense Department.

The interception was made by a Nike-Zeus fired from Kwajalein Island in the Central Pacific against an Atlas launched from California, 4,500 miles away. The Defense Department said an earlier test, at an undisclosed time, was “not a complete success.”

The interception announcement came as the Army disclosed it is planning missile tests over populated areas of the United States. They are scheduled to start in the middle of next year.

It is doing so apparently because the White Sands missile range in New Mexico has been outgrown by the newer Army bombardment rockets.

Issuing the historic military announcement of the interception, Assistant Defense Secretary Arthur Sylvester said he had “no knowledge” that Russia ever had made such an interception, although he could not deny the possibility.

“Neither the intercepting missile nor the target carried a nuclear warhead. The intercept test used extremely precise tracking equipment,” the announcement said.

The three-stage, 48-foot Nike-Zeus was fired from Kwajalein after its sensitive tracking equipment told it that the Air Force missile was plunging through space at 16,000 miles an hour at a probable altitude of 600 miles.

Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara issued a cautious statement about the antimissile in which he aimed a pointed barb at Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev’s claim last week that Russia has an antimissile missile which can hit a “fly in space.”

McNamara said the test “evidences the extensive and continuing nature of the U.S. program to understand the capabilities and limitations of antimissile systems.”

He then added pointedly, “It shows that we speak of such matters from knowledge.”

The defense secretary, who has been lukewarm about the Nike-Zeus, went on to say that the United States also is carrying out a program “to insure that our missiles will penetrate antimissile systems which might be encountered.”

These programs, McNamara said, “give us confidence that our missiles would be able to penetrate any such system which has been developed. . .”

The Army, confident of the Zeus’ potential for defending against missile attack, has spent $1.2 billion on development of the system.

Space Committee Chairman George P. Miller announced the Zeus intercept to the House and called it evidence of “one of the greatest breakthroughs” in recent defense development.

“The country that comes first in a defensive weapon (against missile attack) is in the driver’s seat,” the California Democrat said.

Asked why the previous shot, described as “not a complete success,” was kept secret until Thursday, Sylvester replied, “That is evident — we had nothing to announce.”

Regarding the missile tests over populated areas, the Army said it is surveying three temporary missile launch sites in New Mexico and Utah from which it plans to shoot Pershing and Sergeant rockets into the White Sands range from as far as 300 miles away.

The White Sands range is about 100 miles long. The Pershing is built to shoot up to 300 miles. The Sergeant has a range of about 75 miles.

Test missiles do not carry nuclear or conventional explosive warheads.

Army sources stressed that the Pershing and Sergeant rockets will pass over very sparsely populated areas with a density of about 1.5 persons a square mile.

This country’s other major missile test ranges are at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and along the California coast. From both places, test missiles are aimed out to sea.

The Army surveys are being conducted near Blanding, Utah, some 300 miles from White Sands, the Ft. Wingate ordnance depot in New Mexico, about 200 miles from White Sands, and an area southwest of Datil, N.M., about 70 miles from the present missile range.