Historic California Posts, Camp,
Stations and Airfields
Los Angeles Defense Area Site
LA-32
(Naval Outlying Field, Horse Farm;
Garden Grove US Army Reserve Center)
Los Angeles Defense
Area Site LA-32, circa 1964: The Integreated Fire Control (IFC)
are (LA-32C) is visible at the northwest corner,
and the Launch Area
(LA-32L) is at the southeast corner. The light colored triangular
patch running between the
IFC and Launcher
areas was a swath which was cleared to provide a clear line of
sight between the two areas
The Los Angeles Defense Area Nike Battery 32 consisted of 262.32
acres originally obtained by the U.S. by condemnation.
The site has been used as a a Naval Outlying Field, civilian
airport an air defense missile battery and as a US Army Reserve
Center. As a Nike-Ajax and later a Nike-Hercules battery, the
launch area consisted of 213.59 acres; the control area was 34.67
acres; and the administration area was 13.57 acres.
In 1961 the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare conveyed
the control area of 34.67 acres to Alamitos School District.
The deed restricted use of the property to educational purposes
for 20 years and contained a recapture clause. There was no restoration
provision. The administration area of 13.57 acres was transferred
to the California Army National Guard by DD Form 1354 dated 6
February 1975 for National Guard purposes. The remaining 213.59
acres that was the launch area were transferred to the Department
of the Navy. The Navy conveyed those 213.59 acres to the Irvine
Company by Quitclaim Deed dated 29 July 1976.
There were no restrictions, recapture
clause or any restoration provisions in the deed. By deed dated
6 March 1964, the General Services Administration (GSA) conveyed
0.49 acre to the City of Garden Grove for street widening purposes.
There was no recapture clause and no restoration provision. The
State of California returned the 13.57 acre National Guard site
to the Department of the Army by DD Form 1354 dated 6 August
1981. This is now an active U.S. Army Reserve Center. Many of
the Nike-era buildings have been replaced by a new, modern facility.
The area used by the Los Alamitos School District has no Nike
launchers. The area owned and developed by Irvine Company has
been restored and improved. The missile launchers have been demolished
and removed to a level of 8 feet below the ground line.
Army and Army National Guard units that
garrisoned the missile site were:
Battery A, 554th Antiaircraft Artillery
Missile Battalion; 1958-September 1958.
Battery A, 3rd Battalion, 57th Air Defense
Artillery Regiment, September 1958-March 1964.
Battery A, 4th Battalion, 251st Air Defense
Artillery Regiment, California Army National Guard, March 1964-June
1974
Source: Los Angeles District,
US Army Corps of Engineers, History compiled in 1999.
Posted 15 February 2015
Nike-Ajax (left)
and Nike-Hercules (right Missiles (NARA)
The Western Electric
SAM-A-7/M1/MIM-3 Nike Ajax
The Nike Ajax was the world's first
operational surface-to-air guided missile system. Its origins
lay in the immediate post-war time, when the U.S. Army realized
that guided missiles were the only way to provide air-defense
against future fast high-flying bombers. Western Electric became
the prime contractor for the XSAM-G-7 Nike missile system
and Douglas as the primary subcontractor was responsible for the
missile airframe.
The first unguided Nike missiles
were fired in 1946, but problems with the original multi-rocket
booster (eight solid-fuel rockets wrapped around the missile tail)
soon led to delays in the program. In 1948, it was decided to
replace this booster pack with a single rocket booster, attached
to the back of the missile. The main propulsion of the missile
was a Bell liquid-fueled rocket motor, and the flight path was
controlled by the four small fins around the nose. In November
1951, the first successful interception of a QB-17 target drone
succeeded. The first production Nike (which had been redesignated
SAM-A-7 in 1951) flew in 1952, and the first operational Nike
site was activated in 1954. By this time, the missile had been
designated by the Army as Guided Missile, Anti-Aircraft M1. The
name had changed to Nike I, to distinguish it from the
Nike-B (later MIM-14 Nike Hercules) and Nike II
(later LIM-49 Nike Zeus). On 15 November 1956, the name was finally
changed to Nike Ajax.
The Nike Ajax missile used a command
guidance system. An acquisition radar called LOPAR (Low-Power
Acquisition Radar) picked up potential targets at long range,
and the information on hostile targets was then transferred to
the Target Tracking Radar (TTR). An adjacent Missile Tracking
Radar (MTR) tracked the flight path of the Nike Ajax missile.
Using tracking data of the TTR and MTR, a computer calculated
the interception trajectory, and sent appropriate course correction
commands to the missile. The three high-explosive fragmentation
warheads of the missile (in nose, center, and aft section) were
detonated by ground command, when the paths of target and missile
met.
One of the major disadvantages of the Nike
Ajax system was that the guidance system could handle only
one target at a time. Additionally, there was originally no data
link between different Nike Ajax sites, which could lead
to several sites engaging the same target. The latter problem
was eventually solved by the introduction of the Martin AN/FSG-1
Missile Master command-and-control system, with automatic
data communication and processing. Other problematic features
of the Nike Ajax system were the liquid-fuel rocket motor
with its highly toxic propellants, and the large size of a complete
site with all components, which made Nike Ajax to all intents
and purposes a fixed-site air defense system.
By 1958, nearly 200 Nike Ajax sites
had been activated in the United States. However, the far more
advanced MIM-14 Nike Hercules soon replaced the Nike Ajax,
and by late 1963, the last Nike Ajax on U.S. soil had been
retired. In 1963, the Nike Ajax had received the new designation
MIM-3A. Despite the use of an MIM (Mobile Intercept Missile) designator,
the mobility of the Nike Ajax system was more theoretical
than actually feasible in a combat situation.
The MIM-3A continued to serve with U.S.
overseas and friendly forces for many more years. In total, more
than 16,000 missiles were built.
Western Electric
SAM-A-25/M6/MIM-14 Nike Hercules
The Nike Hercules was the only nuclear-armed
surface-to-air weapon, which was operational with the U.S. Army.
Development of an improved Nike missile began in 1952, with the
primary goal to develop a missile with a significantly higher
performance than MIM-3 Nike Ajax (then known simply as
Nike), which could still be used with the existing Nike
ground equipment. After it had been shown that the Nike Ajax
could not be equipped with then existing nuclear warheads, nuclear
armament became another goal for the new missile. The SAM-A-25
Nike B program was formally established in June 1953. As with
Nike Ajax, Western Electric was prime contractor, and Douglas
was responsible for the missile airframe.
The Nike B (renamed Nike Hercules
on 15 December 1956) used many components of the Nike I
(Nike Ajax). The booster consisted of four Nike Ajax
boosters, and the original design used 4 of Ajax' liquid-fuel
rockets as sustainer propulsion. However, the first flight tests
with the liquid-fuel sustainer in 1955 proved very troublesome,
and a solid-fueled sustainer rocket was eventually used. The first
successful interception of a drone target occurred in 1956, and
in 1957 the new solid-fuel sustainer flew for the first time.
Nike Hercules used the same command guidance as the MIM-3
Nike Ajax, with essentially the same ground components.
The first production Nike Hercules
missiles were delivered in 1958, and quickly replaced the Ajax
on many Nike sites. By then, the Nike Hercules had
been designated as Guided Missile, Air Defense M6. The M6 could
be equipped with either an M17 (a.k.a. T45) blast-fragmentation
warhead, or a W-31 nuclear fission warhead with yield selectable
as 2 kT or 40 kT. The missile performance was such that even very
high-flying bombers could not escape the Nike Hercules.
Capability against low-level targets remained rather limited,
however.
As the Nike Hercules began replacing
the older Nike Ajax, work was underway to improve the acquisition
and tracking radar capabilities to fully exploit the missile's
greater performance. The major improvement in what was called
the Improved Hercules system was the new L-band acquisition
radar, called HIPAR (High-Power Acquisition Radar). The TTR (Target
Tracking Radar) and TRR (Target Ranging Radar) were also improved,
having better ECM resistance. The missiles of the improved Improved
Hercules system were designated as M6A1. In June 1960, an Improved
Hercules achieved the world's first successful interception of
a ballistic guided missile, when a MGM-5 Corporal SRBM was shot
down. The new radars were also far more compact than the original
ones, which made moving a Nike site a least somewhat practical
for the first time. Lastly, Improved Hercules introduced
a viable surface-to-surface capability to the Nike system.
The first Improved Hercules systems were installed at Nike
sites in June 1961.
In 1963, the M6 and M6A1 missiles were redesignated
as MIM-14A and MIM-14B, respectively. The MIM-14C (introduced
in 1972) was a modified MIM-14B with an improved missile guidance
section for higher maneuverability and better ECM resistance.
All in all, the U.S. Army established 145
Nike Hercules sites over the years. Production of the nuclear-armed
missiles ended in 1964, and gradual phase-out of the MIM-14 began
in the late 1960's. The Army originally planned to replace the
Nike with the new MIM-104 Patriot missile, but this
plan was not implemented in the USA. Therefore, after the last
active Nike Hercules sites in the continental U.S. had
been deactivated in 1974, there are no long-range air-defense
missiles fielded in the U.S.. In Europe, the U.S. Army retired
its last MIM-14 units in 1984, when the MIM-104 Patriot
was introduced.
In total, more than 25000 Nike Hercules
missiles of all versions were produced, most being of the MIM-14B
variant.
Source: Directory of U.S. Missiles
and Rockets, http://www.designation-systems.net/
Naval Outlying
Field (NOLF), Horse Farm
NOLF Horse Farm,
14 August 1945
The date of construction of this World
War II era Navy satellite airfield is unknown. Horse Farm was
originally one of five NOLFs which were closely located between
NAAS Los Alamitos & MCAS
El Toro. The others were Haster Farm NOLF, Mile Square NOLF,
Seal Beach NOLF, and Palisades NOLF. Mile Square was built in
1942, so Horse Farm was probably built around the same time.
The earliest depiction which has been
located of the Horse Farm Airfield was a 7/21/43 aerial view
looking north at “Los Alamitos Field Auxiliary (08303 Horse
Ranch Outlying Field)” from the 1945 Army Air Forces Airfield
Directory (see below). It depicted the field as a paved hexagonal
landing mat.
The 1945 AAF Airfield Directory described
“Los Alamitos Field Auxiliary (08303 Horse Ranch Outlying
Field)” as a 288 acre irregularly-shaped field within which
was a 1,500' diameter bituminous hexagonal landing mat in the
center of a 3,966' x 2,911' all-way landing area. The field was
said to not have any hangars.
The Navy apparently abandoned the Horse
Farm airfield immediately after the end of World War II, as it
was no longer depicted at all on the February 1946 San Diego
Sectional Chart. However, the Horse Farm airfield was apparently
reactivated in some capacity by the Navy at some point within
the next 2 years, as "Horse Farm (Navy) was depicted once
again on the September 1948 San Diego Sectional Chart. It was
depicted as having a 1,700' hard surface runway.
As depicted on the 1950 USGS topographical
map the airfield at Horse Farm consisted of a hexagonal landing
area, measuring 1,400' across. It was still apparently owned
by the military in 1950, but it is not known if it was still
an active airfield.
"Horse Farm (Navy)" was depicted
on the March 1951 San Diego US Air Force Sectional Chart, but
the Aerodromes table described the field as "Closed".
At some point between 1951-55, Horse Farm
was apparently reused as a private airfield, as that is how it
was described in the "Aerodromes" table on an early-1955
San Diego Sectional Aeronautical Chart. The airfield was described
as consisting of a single 1,700' runway, along with the remarks
"Very poor runway."
The Horse Farm airfield evidently closed
(for reasons unknown) at some point during 1955, as it was no
longer depicted on the September 1955 San Diego Sectional Chart
(courtesy of Chris Kennedy) or subsequent aeronautical charts.
In 1956, the property at Horse Farm was
reused as the location for the Nike Ajax surface-to-air missile
battery LA-32, Garden Grove, and the airfield was presumably
closed.
This was also where one of the Southern
California TRACON terminal radar antennas was located. It was
not on LGB or SNA as one might assume, it was in the middle of
an industrial area and the old location of the Horse Farm Naval
OLF probably explains why it was located there.”
The site of the Horse Farm airfield eventually
was consumed by urban sprawl.
The site of the Horse Farm airfield is
bounded by Chapman Avenue on the south, Patterson Drive on the
north, Knott Avenue on the west, and Western Avenue on the east.
Extract, January 1945 Army
Air Forces Airfield Directory
Clearer image from
the above directory page. 21 July 1943
