Operational surface-to-air guided missile (Nike Ajax)
Misil tierra-aire guiado operativo (Nike Ajax)
- Date
- 1953-1954 (en servicio, 1954) · confidence medium
- Place
- White Sands, New Mexico, United States
- Credited to
- Bell Labs, Douglas Aircraft and the US Army
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A two-stage missile guided by ground radar commands, with a fragmentation warhead detonated near the bomber. Deployed in 1954 around American cities, it was the first operational guided surface-to-air system in the Western world.
The Germans developed the Wasserfall earlier, which did not reach service, and the USSR deployed the S-25 Berkut in 1955; the Nike Ajax's primacy is as the first operational system in the West.
What it led to
- the Soviet SA-2 and the Hawk and Patriot missiles
- integrated air-defence systems
- deterrence against bombers