Family lodging was at nearby Kempen Hq 9th Missile Wing Group Operations Center 56th Squadron 51☂'2'N 6☂0'2' E. Units: Belgian Group Missiles 1959–1990 staffing and liaison element between the Nike Wings and the Belgian air force staff. Operating 36 x Nike Herc (10x nuclear-armed) US custodians: 43rd (A) USAAD. The unit was later reassigned to the 9th Missile Wing/57th Sq as it was the most Northern Belgian site. Note: The site was taken over from the Netherlands air force in 1974, becoming ops in 1975 as 13th Missile Wing/57 Sq operating 36x Nike Herc conventional role. (10x Nuclear-armed) US Custodians: 43rd (C) USAAD. This became the IFC when 50th Sq started Nike Herc ops. Former combined IFC/LA location at 50☄1'20'N 06☃0'13' E when operating 12 x Nike Ajax missiles. Units: Hq 13th Missile Wing Missile Support Wing Group Operations Center and 50th (A) Squadron 1959–1990. (10x Nuclear armed) US custodians: 43rd (B) USAAD.

Blankenheim in the federal state of Nordrhein Westfalen (NRW).

Their defending area was the industrial Ruhr area. All Belgian Nike sites were in the 2 ATAF part of then West- Germany.

It was organized into a Missile Group (the overall staffing) a Support Wing (tech and log support), and 2 (9th and 13th) Missile Wings, each with 4 subordinate units. General Belgian Nike info: The Nike missile system was operational in the Belgian airforce from 1959 until 1990. Only a few are intact and preserve the history of the Nike project. Several were obliterated and turned into parks. Many Nike sites are now municipal yards, communications, and FAA facilities, probation camps, and even renovated for use as airsoft gaming and military simulation training complexes. The leftovers were offered to private individuals. Others were offered to state and local governments, while others were sold to school districts. Many were already on Army National Guard bases who continued to use the property. As the sites were decommissioned, they were first offered to federal agencies. Leftover traces of the approximately 265 Nike missile bases can still be seen around cities across the United States. Army Nike sites were also operational in South Korea, Japan and were sold to Taiwan. This article lists sites in the United States, most responsible to Army Air Defense Command however, the Army also deployed Nike missiles to Europe as part of the NATO alliance, with sites being operated by both American and European military forces. The following is a list of Nike missile sites operated by the United States Army. To order a copy or to subscribe, call 80.Nike Missile family, From left, MIM-3 Nike-Ajax, MIM-14 Nike-Hercules, LIM-49 Nike-Zeus. Headquarters is along Highway 240 - the Badlands Loop Scenic Byway - at Interstate 90 exit 131.Įditor's Note: This story is revised from the March/April 2010 issue of South Dakota Magazine. Surely all the little red buttons have been disconnected, but be careful just in case. Visitors can peer into the underground silo and see the control room where two-member teams worked 24-hour shifts.

Most were destroyed, but the National Park Service preserved one silo and one control center near Badlands National Park as the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. South Dakota’s missiles were deactivated when the cold war ended in 1991. Only one was ever launched a 7-second test flight near Newell resulted in the missile landing harmlessly in a field.

They housed 150 Minuteman II warheads that could have streaked 15,000 miles per hour over the North Pole and into the Soviet Union if the super powers had fought a nuclear war.Īs it happened, the silos were deterrents, and curiosities for ranchers and passers-by. Missile silos were once buried under South Dakota’s short grass prairie west of the Missouri River.

Abandoned missile silo locations