Nike Zeus

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Test firing of a Nike Sprint missile, 1965.

Nike Zeus rocket

Nike Zeus

missile

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Nike missile
…known as, among other designations, Nike Zeus, the first missile designed specifically to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Nike Zeus evolved into Spartan, the exoatmospheric layer of a two-layer ABM system known at first as Nike X. Spartan, propelled by three solid-rocket stages and fitted with phased-array radar and a…
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…known as, among other designations, Nike Zeus, the first missile designed specifically to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Nike Zeus evolved into Spartan, the exoatmospheric layer of a two-layer ABM system known at first as Nike X. Spartan, propelled by three solid-rocket stages and fitted with phased-array radar and a…
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nuclear strategy
Mutual assured destruction
Nike series, in developing defenses against bombers, but the move to ICBMs, with their minimal warning time before impact, appeared to render the defensive task hopeless. Then, during the 1960s, advances in radars and long-range SAMs promised a breakthrough in antiballistic missile defense, but by…
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Nike series, in developing defenses against bombers, but the move to ICBMs, with their minimal warning time before impact, appeared to render the defensive task hopeless. Then, during the 1960s, advances in radars and long-range SAMs promised a breakthrough in antiballistic missile defense, but by…
Read More