Cold war tech buffs help me out here...

[TheMightyFavog]

I think one our state papers screwed up on a story on an old Nike-Zeus site outside of Milwaukee.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WI_NUCLEAR_PARK_WIOL-?SITE=WIMAD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Former nuclear launch site may soon be park in Waukesha

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) -- A former Cold War launch pad for short-range nuclear missiles may soon become a park in suburban Milwaukee.

The National Park Service wants to give the 24-acre site on the east side of Waukesha to the city at no cost.

The city's attorney's office is working out details for the proposed land transfer deed. The Parks, Recreation and Forestry Board, which would give final approval, is expected to take up the matter after that.

Most of the polluted soil and the entire launching mechanism were removed some time ago from the site, which used to be called Nike Battery 74. But the remaining contaminated soil needs to be capped. The Parks Department wants to cover it with gravel so the National Park Service will allow the land to be converted into a park, said a spokesman for the state's Department of Natural Resources, which is also involved.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, I was under the impression that Nike-Zeus was an anti-aircraft system that used conventional warheads not an SRBM system like this article implies.

I've heard of Nuclear tipped anti-aircraft ordinance developed during the Cold War, but I don't think Nike-Zeus utilized these warheads. I was under the impression that they only used conventional fragmentation warheads.

[Tyler Durden]

1. One of the few Nuke tipped ABM's deployed.

http://www.nuclearabms.info/NikeZeus.html

Actually worked, so to speak. Was supposed to intercept Re-entry vehicle/warheads, made obsolete by the MIRV.

Nike Zeus A was a 20kt Nuke, B a 450kt Thermonuke.

We had a Nike Zeus B battery on Belle Isle in the Detroit River. Deactivated with the rest.