Winged Victory

Most of the guided missiles officially mentioned so far by the armed services (e.g., the Air Force's Matador) have been obsolete or unsuccessful models. Last week the Army broke the precedent and talked guardedly about its Nike (rhymes with Ikey), a missile that really works.

The Nike (named after the Greek goddess of victory) is a ground-to-air rocket designed to blow the highest-flying bombers into junk. It is a slim, dart-shaped object which is launched from the ground by a "booster" that drops off after the missile has attained enough speed to continue under its own rocket power. Ground radars watch the enemy bomber and steer the Nike toward it by electronic signals.

Army Ordnance gave few details about the Nike, but for months its missilemen have been smiling over its recent tests. One rumor is that at least two out of three Nikes get the flying targets.

A movie of this operation has put the fear of missiles into bomber pilots. The Nikes shoot up like projectiles, much faster than sound, veering slightly from side to side and matching each evasive tactic of the drone plane far overhead. The act ends in a flash of flame, a cloud of smoke and a rain of chewed-up debris.

The Nikes have disadvantages too. Packed with electronics and requiring more electronics on the ground, they are certainly expensive. They are said to be hard to maintain for long periods in tiptop flying condition. Their limited radius of action makes them more like antiaircraft guns than intercepter airplanes. So the Nikes cannot defend whole countries, only specially valuable places of moderate size. Moreover, they may have their troubles. Good counter-radar measures by enemy bombers could give the Nikes more trouble than they have ever had in peacetime tests.

While doing their defending duty, the Nikes will not be desirable neighbors. The boosters that bounce them into the air are big enough to do damage when they fall to the ground, and so are the Nikes themselves. But Army Ordnance can point out that this rain of angular metal would be better than the flash and blast of enemy atom bombs.

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