ROCKETRY—COX AND STOIKO 279 
feet long and 41% feet in diameter. It is powered by three 6,000-pound- 
thrust engines, has a speed of approximately 1,000 miles per hour and 
a range of 100 miles. There is no additional information available on 
its current status. 
There are currently six missiles in the antiaircraft category. They 
are as follows: the Nike Ajax, the Nike Hercules, the Hawk, the 
Terrier, the Tartar, and the Talos. The primary function of the 
ground-to-air missile is the protection of major cities, vital industries, 
and ships at sea from every type of enemy aircraft carrying modern 
warheads or guided missiles. In addition, this weapons system must 
be capable of stopping multiple threats from several directions and 
altitudes simultaneously and at safe distances consistent with the 
types of warheads employed. 
The best known of our antiaircraft missiles are the Nike Ajax and 
the Nike Hercules. 
The Nike Ajax is approximately 20 feet long and a foot in diameter ; 
speed is 1,500 miles per hour, range 10 to 30 miles, and ceiling about 
50,000 feet. The vehicle is solid rocket boost launched and has a liquid 
rocket sustainer. The Nike Ajax is now in service, being mass pro- 
duced and delivered to antiaircraft batteries in and around major cities 
and vital industrial areas throughout the United States. Each Nike 
battery consists of 12 missile launchers, manned and operated by ap- 
proximately 100 officers and enlisted men. Although the Nike is 
designed to intercept moving and evasive targets and has an excep- 
tional kill potential, it has been the subject of controversy. It has been 
argued that the missile does not offer sufficient down-range protection 
against high-flying modern aircraft carrying nuclear or H-bomb 
warheads. 
The second of the Nike series, the Nike Hercules, has been de- 
veloped as a replacement for the Ajax and has been called the “double” 
Ajax. The Hercules is 27 feet long and 2 feet in diameter. The 
vehicle is solid-boost launched and solid rocket motor sustained; the 
speed is 2,000 to 2,300 miles per hour, and range is reported as three 
times the range of the Ajax, or about 70 miles. The missile is de- 
scribed as being far more maneuverable and deadly than the Ajax 
because of its atomic warhead. The Hercules is currently in the final 
stages of development and initial stages of production. Replacement 
of the Ajax by the Hercules should begin in the spring of 1958. 
The Army’s Hawk was designed to supplement the Nike, i.e., fill 
the gap between zero altitude and minimum Nike altitude capability. 
The Hawk is 16 feet 4 inches long, and 14 inches in diameter. It is 
propelled by a solid rocket motor. The speed has been described as 
being highly supersonic with a range of 50 miles. The missile is in 
the final stages of development, and, when it is made available, it 
4925205919 
