Nike Missile Site F-37 Launcher, Cheney Washington

Nike Missile Site F-37 was a former U.S. Army Nike Ajax surface-to-air missile battery near Cheney in Spokane County, Washington. It was part of the Fairchild Defense Area, the Cold War missile-defense ring built around Fairchild Air Force Base and the Spokane region. The site's Cold War purpose was to help defend Fairchild, a Strategic Air Command base, from Soviet long-range bomber attack during the period when U.S. continental air defense planning focused heavily on bomber interception.

F-37 is no longer active as a missile installation. It was an Ajax-only Nike site, active from 1957 to June 1960. It was not one of the Fairchild Defense Area sites that remained in missile service after conversion to Nike Hercules. The Fairchild Hercules sites were F-45 at Medical Lake and F-87 at Deep Creek. F-37's closure followed the Army's shift from numerous shorter-range Ajax batteries to fewer, longer-range Hercules batteries.

Both components were built on or near Needham Hill, roughly 3.5 miles north-northeast of Cheney, in the Four Lakes area. The IFC/control site stood north-northwest of the launch area, giving the radars a high, open view over the surrounding terrain and the approaches to the protected target area.

Location and Military Setting

F-37 was located in the rolling Palouse-edge countryside southwest of Spokane and north-northeast of Cheney. The site's setting was not accidental. Nike missile batteries needed enough separation from dense urban development for safety, enough elevation and open terrain for radar performance, and enough proximity to the defended target to engage incoming aircraft before they could reach the target area. The Four Lakes / Cheney location met those requirements for the southwestern portion of the Fairchild Defense Area.

Fairchild Air Force Base was the central reason the defense area existed. During the Cold War, Fairchild was a major Strategic Air Command installation. SAC bases were among the highest-priority targets in U.S. and Soviet war planning because they hosted long-range nuclear bomber forces and the supporting infrastructure required to keep those aircraft on alert. A bomber attack against Fairchild would have threatened not only aircraft and weapons but also command, maintenance, fuel, runway, and dispersal infrastructure. Nike batteries around the base therefore formed a defensive layer intended to engage bomber formations that penetrated the outer Air Force radar and fighter-interceptor defenses.

The Fairchild Defense Area was comparatively small when compared with the large metropolitan Nike rings around New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or Washington-Baltimore, but it performed the same basic mission. Four Nike sites were installed around the Spokane/Fairchild region: F-07 at Spokane/Airway Heights, F-37 at Cheney/Four Lakes, F-45 at Medical Lake, and F-87 at Deep Creek. Together they created overlapping fields of fire around the air base and surrounding military installations. F-37's position southwest of the base gave coverage over the Cheney/Four Lakes approach and helped complete the defensive ring.

The Nike Ajax system was the first operational U.S. guided surface-to-air missile defense system. It was developed after World War II because conventional antiaircraft artillery was no longer considered sufficient against high-speed, high-altitude bombers carrying atomic weapons. Nike batteries were fixed installations, not mobile field positions. They combined radar tracking, analog fire-control computing, and command-guided missiles in a dispersed installation that generally consisted of three functional areas: administrative/support, Integrated Fire Control, and launch.

At F-37, as at other Nike Ajax sites, the IFC/control area contained the radars and fire-control equipment. The acquisition radar searched for targets. The target-tracking radar locked onto the attacking aircraft. The missile-tracking radar followed the Nike Ajax missile after launch. The computer system compared the target and missile tracks, calculated an intercept point, and generated guidance commands. The missile did not independently hunt its target; it was guided from the ground.

The launch area contained the missile magazines, launchers, missile assembly and test functions, generators, warhead and propellant handling areas, security features, and maintenance buildings. Nike Ajax missiles were normally stored horizontally in underground magazines. When ordered to fire, an elevator raised a missile and launcher to the surface. The launcher then elevated, the booster ignited, and the missile began its command-guided flight toward the intercept point.

F-37's technical configuration, Nike 1B,2C/30A/12L-A, identifies it as a three-magazine Nike Ajax battery. The "1B,2C" portion refers to magazine/box types. The "30A" indicates a 30-missile Ajax allowance, and "12L-A" indicates 12 Ajax launchers. The Spokesman-Review's 2017 account of the surviving Cheney site described three heavily fortified missile bays about 20 feet deep, consistent with a standard three-magazine Ajax launch area. Those surviving magazines later became one of the most visible reminders of the site's original function.

Fairchild Defense Area

The Fairchild Defense Area was part of a broader national system of Army air-defense missile installations. The Army began deploying Nike Ajax batteries in the early 1950s. By the late 1950s, hundreds of Nike installations ringed major U.S. cities, industrial regions, ports, bomber bases, nuclear-production sites, and other strategic targets. In the Spokane region, the immediate protected asset was Fairchild Air Force Base, but the defense area also supported the military value of the wider Spokane area, including Geiger Field and other regional defense infrastructure.

Washington Nike histories describe the Fairchild sites as a "steel ring" around the air base. Construction began in 1956 after Army Corps of Engineers surveys and land acquisition. The four Fairchild batteries entered service in 1957 or, in the case of Deep Creek, 1958. F-37 therefore belonged to the first operational phase of the Fairchild defense network.

The service life of the Fairchild Ajax batteries was brief because the Nike system changed rapidly. Nike Hercules, introduced nationally beginning in 1958, had longer range, higher altitude capability, solid-fuel improvements, and the ability to carry a nuclear warhead. Because Hercules could cover a larger defended area, the Army could close some Ajax sites while converting selected batteries. In the Fairchild Defense Area, F-37 and F-07 closed in June 1960, while F-45 and F-87 continued as Hercules-capable batteries until March 1966.

Site Layout and Facilities

F-37 occupied a large hilltop complex rather than a tiny single pad. Later accounts describe the former missile base as a 65-acre property with 18 outbuildings acquired by Cheney School District. The Nike-era layout included the launcher/magazine area and the IFC/control area, separated by terrain but functionally connected as one battery.

The launch area contained the underground missile magazines, launcher elevators, launcher surfaces, missile assembly and support buildings, generator and utility spaces, security fencing, and circulation roads. Nike Ajax launch areas were heavily engineered because they had to store explosive missiles safely, raise them rapidly to the surface, and support round-the-clock readiness. The surviving underground bays were later described as damp, dark, heavily fortified, and overbuilt, with thick concrete and substantial utility infrastructure.

The IFC/control area was the radar and fire-control half of the battery. It would have included radar pads or towers, tracking equipment, acquisition radar, control vans or buildings, generator support, communications facilities, and administrative/security support. The control area required elevation and open sight lines. The Needham Hill setting gave the radar equipment a broad view, which was one reason the property later remained attractive for communications use.

The administrative and support functions at a Nike site normally included barracks or ready rooms, mess, offices, maintenance/storage, water and power support, roads, fencing, guard facilities, and sometimes recreation or motor-pool space. The Spokesman-Review account notes that Cheney School District later reused former base buildings for offices and storage, including the former generator room as the superintendent's office and old warehouse space for school-district storage. That pattern of reuse is common at Nike sites: buildings designed for durable, self-contained military support often proved useful to local governments, school districts, public-works agencies, and emergency services after deactivation.

Operational History

F-37 entered service in January 1957, in the same initial Fairchild Defense Area buildup that placed Nike Ajax batteries around Spokane and Fairchild Air Force Base. The site was known locally as the Cheney or Four Lakes battery. A later Spokesman-Review article reports that the site was known as either B Battery or Nike Site F-37 before its post-missile reuse.

During its short operational life, F-37 would have functioned as a ready air-defense battery. Soldiers assigned to a Nike Ajax site spent most of their time maintaining readiness rather than firing missiles. Daily work included radar maintenance, electronics testing, missile checkout, launcher maintenance, generator upkeep, guard duty, communications checks, target-tracking drills, fire-control exercises, inspections, and coordination with the broader air-defense network.

Nike Ajax sites were labor-intensive. The missile system depended on trained radar operators, missile maintenance specialists, launcher crews, generator operators, communications personnel, security forces, clerks, cooks, mechanics, and officers/NCOs capable of managing a high-readiness technical installation. Crews had to keep equipment ready in all weather. In eastern Washington, that meant operating through hot summers, cold winters, wind, dust, and snow, while maintaining sensitive electronics and missile equipment.

The site's active missile service ended in June 1960. The immediate historical cause was not that the protected target had lost importance; Fairchild remained strategically important. The cause was the Army's transition to Nike Hercules and the resulting consolidation of the defense network. F-37's Ajax magazines and launch equipment were not retained for long-term missile service. The larger Hercules missiles required different handling and site modifications, and the Army chose other Fairchild-area batteries for continued operation.

Post-Closure Military Reuse

Although F-37's missile career was short, the site did not disappear. In 1961, after the Nike missile function ended, the property was placed under Air Force control and reused as the Four Lakes Communications Station. The Washington Air National Guard took over the installation and used it for communications purposes. This reuse made sense because the site already had access roads, utilities, security, durable structures, and a high hilltop location suitable for radio and communications functions.

The Four Lakes Communications Station period lasted for decades. Air Force/Nike reuse notes identify the site as Four Lakes Communications Station, installation number 7887, and report that both the control site and launcher site were encompassed by the communications station. The facility was still apparently active in the late 1990s. Later site summaries identify the Washington Air National Guard as operating the former F-37 property from 1961 to 2009.

This long communications reuse is an important part of F-37's history. Many Nike sites were abandoned, sold quickly, or heavily redeveloped after closure. F-37 instead remained in government or quasi-military use for roughly half a century after its missile role ended. That long reuse helped preserve a large portion of the physical installation, including the underground magazines, support buildings, and general base layout.

Current Reuse and Condition

The former F-37 property is now associated with Cheney School District. The district purchased the 65-acre former Nike Missile Base for $29,000 in 2009 and moved district administrators into the former base in 2012. The site became the administrative heart of the district rather than an abandoned missile ruin. Former military buildings were reused for offices, storage, maintenance, and support functions.

A 2017 Spokesman-Review article described the district using the former base in practical ways: old outbuildings provided storage, an old warehouse housed a school-lunch freezer, the former generator room became the superintendent's office, and former fortified missile bays remained present but unused for routine operations. The article emphasized the heavy construction of the site, including thick concrete and missile bays about 20 feet deep. The district also used the site for programs and considered additional remodeling or program relocation.

Chronology

• 1945 The U.S. Army began the guided-missile development program that became Nike.
• 1951 A Nike missile successfully intercepted a QB-17 drone during testing, helping validate the system.
• 1954 The Army Corps of Engineers conducted surveys around the Fairchild/Spokane region to identify tactical locations for Nike missile batteries.
• April 1956 Construction began on the four Fairchild Defense Area Nike batteries.
• January 1957 F-37 at Cheney/Four Lakes entered operational service as a Nike Ajax battery.
• 1957 F-07 at Spokane/Airway Heights and F-45 at Medical Lake also entered service in the Fairchild Defense Area.
• September 1958 F-87 at Deep Creek became active, completing the four-site Fairchild Nike network.
• June 1960 F-37 closed as a Nike Ajax missile battery.
• 1961 The former F-37 property was placed under Air Force control and taken over by the Washington Air National Guard for communications use.
• 1961 The site became known as Four Lakes Communications Station.
• 1961-2009 The former Nike property operated in communications reuse, associated with the Washington Air National Guard / Air Force communications mission.
• 2009 Cheney School District purchased the 65-acre former Nike Missile Base for $29,000.
• 2012 Cheney School District administrators moved into the former base on Andrus Road.
• 2017 The Spokesman-Review documented the site's school-district reuse, surviving underground missile bays, 18 outbuildings, former generator room reuse, and storage functions.
• Present F-37 is closed as a military installation and reused as Cheney School District administrative/support property, with surviving Cold War infrastructure incorporated into the site.

List of all Nike Installations in the Fairchild Defense Area

List of all Nike Installations in Washington