PATTERNED GROUND: VISUALIZING THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONDITION OF COLD WAR NIKE MISSILE SITES IN THE UNITED STATES USING ARCGIS AND GOOGLE EARTH

The Nike missile was the first operational supersonic surface to air missile. The Nike Ajax and Hercules versions were all weather weapons with a range of 30-90 miles to altitudes from 60,000 to greater than 100,000 feet. Nike sites consisted of an Integrated Fire Control facility (IFC) and a separate Launch Facility located relatively nearby. Between 1954 to as late as 1974, operational Nike anti-aircraft missile sites surrounded numerous cities and air bases (Defense Areas) in the United States to protect them from attack by Soviet long-range bombers such as the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear.

Development of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) made these facilities and their technology obsolete. Sites were abandoned, repurposed or redeveloped. Today, control sites (IFCs) are mostly unrecognizable, although a few still have the towers that supported the Acquisition, Target Tracking and Missile Tracking radar units. By contrast, many of the nearly 300 launch sites themselves, with their complex in-ground concrete magazines, elevators, launch pads and distinct surface layout, are still recognizable in current satellite and aerial imagery. Using documented coordinates for the IFC and Launch facility sites, I created continental and detailed maps to visualize the distribution of these historic defensive sites. Using satellite imagery, recent orthophotos, LiDAR DEMs, historic aerial photos and topographic maps, comparisons reveal the changes to some of these sites over the past 50+ years. Some launch sites are completely obliterated, some are overgrown and others are intact and readily recognizable existing as distinctive patterns surrounded by housing developments, schools, athletic fields, woods or farm land.