Nike Missile Site F-45 IFC, Medical Lake Washington

Nike site F-45 was the Medical Lake Nike missile battery in Spokane County, Washington, and it formed part of the Army air-defense ring around Fairchild Air Force Base. It was not an Air Force Atlas or Titan missile site. It was an Army surface-to-air missile battery built first for Nike Ajax and later converted for Nike Hercules. The site is no longer active as a military installation. It operated from January 1957 to March 1966, with the initial federal inventory giving the service range more generally as 1957 to March 1966.

The site consisted of two physically separated parts. The integrated fire control area, or IFC, was the radar, control, administrative, and barracks side of the battery. The launch area was the magazine and launcher side where the missiles were stored, handled, raised to the surface, and fired. The two areas had to be close enough for command-and-control communications and line-of-sight tactical relationships, but separated for safety, security, and terrain reasons.

The IFC/control coordinate places the radar/control complex on or near Booth Hill south of Fancher Road, west of Medical Lake and west-southwest of Fairchild AFB. The launch coordinate places the missile-launch complex east-northeast of the IFC, in the Graham Road area northwest of Medical Lake. These coordinates are from the project KMZ and match the rounded values published in Nike site-coordinate sources.

Defense Area and Strategic Purpose

F-45 belonged to the Fairchild Air Force Base Defense Area. Fairchild was one of the most important military installations in eastern Washington during the Cold War because it was a Strategic Air Command base. SAC bomber bases were high-priority Soviet targets, and defending them mattered because they were part of the United States' nuclear deterrent. The Army's Nike batteries around Fairchild were therefore not simply local defense posts; they were elements of the national air-defense system built to protect the bomber force, the Spokane region's military infrastructure, and related Cold War facilities.

The Fairchild Defense Area ultimately had four Nike batteries: F-07 at Airway Heights/Spokane, F-37 near Cheney/Four Lakes, F-45 at Medical Lake, and F-87 at Deep Creek. Three sites, including F-45, were built and activated in 1957; F-87 followed in 1958. Headquarters facilities were located at Fairchild. The Seattle District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers handled land acquisition, design, and construction supervision for the Fairchild Nike network.

F-45 was one of the two Fairchild-area batteries that survived the early 1960s Ajax drawdown. F-07 and F-37 were Ajax-only sites and closed in June 1960. F-45 and F-87 were modernized for Nike Hercules and remained active until 1966.

Site Layout and Facilities

F-45 followed the standard Nike separation between a control area and launch area. The IFC contained the acquisition and tracking radar equipment, the battery-control equipment, administrative structures, and support buildings used by the soldiers who operated the firing system. The control area watched the airspace, tracked aircraft and targets, and generated the fire-control solution needed to guide the missile after launch.

The launch area contained the underground missile magazines, elevators, launcher sections, missile assembly/handling spaces, warheading and fueling-related facilities from the Ajax period, security fencing, ready buildings, generator and utility features, and road networks. In the Nike Ajax era, missiles were stored underground and raised to the surface for launch. When a site was converted to Nike Hercules, the launch area required modifications because Hercules was much larger, solid-fueled, and could carry a nuclear warhead. Appendix D of Mary Cagle's Nike Hercules history lists F-45 as a converted defense site with a 2B magazine configuration, indicating a converted underground-magazine site rather than a new aboveground Hercules-only installation.

The federal Nike inventory identifies F-45's configuration as Nike 2B,1C/18H,30A/12L-UA. In practical project terms, that means F-45 began as an Ajax-capable underground site and was modified for a mixed Hercules/Ajax-universal launcher configuration during its Hercules service.

Operational History

The Fairchild Nike program was part of the broader national move from gun air defense to guided-missile defense. By the mid-1950s, piston bombers, jet bombers, and nuclear weapons had made conventional antiaircraft guns inadequate for the defense of major targets. Nike Ajax gave the Army a radar-guided surface-to-air weapon capable of engaging high-altitude aircraft. Nike Hercules extended that capability with greater range, solid-fuel propulsion, higher altitude performance, and nuclear-warhead capability.

F-45 entered service as a Nike Ajax battery in January 1957. During the initial phase of operation, it worked with the other Fairchild batteries to form an air-defense ring around Fairchild AFB and the Spokane region. The site was one of several installations intended to intercept Soviet bombers before they could attack the air base or other strategic facilities.

The site's importance increased when the Army began consolidating Nike defenses around the newer Hercules system. Nike Hercules could cover a larger area than Nike Ajax, so fewer batteries were needed. In the Fairchild Defense Area, that meant the closure of the Ajax-only F-07 and F-37 batteries in June 1960 while F-45 and F-87 were upgraded and retained. F-45 was converted to Nike Hercules June 1960 to January 1961 and the operational date with Hercules missiles was December 1, 1960.

Once converted, F-45 became one of the two remaining Fairchild Hercules batteries. Its role was to defend Fairchild AFB with a missile capable of destroying individual aircraft or bomber formations at longer range. As a Hercules site, F-45 remained part of the Army Air Defense Command network during the early 1960s, a period when the national air-defense system was adapting to the shift from bomber attack to missile attack as the dominant nuclear threat.

The Army deactivated the Fairchild Nike Hercules batteries in March 1966. F-45 therefore had roughly nine years of active Nike service: about three years as an Ajax battery, followed by approximately five years as a Hercules-capable battery.

Post-Closure and Current Condition

After deactivation, F-45 left military service and entered private/local reuse.

Later site-condition summaries describe the control area as privately owned, with some buildings and radar-tower remnants surviving, and the launch area as abandoned or partly altered, with some buildings standing and magazine features visible or deteriorated. Those conditions may have changed over time through private redevelopment, grading, salvage, fire, or vegetation growth, so the safest project description is that F-45 is a closed Nike site with both components transferred out of military use, the IFC in private ownership near Fancher Road/Booth Hill, and the launch area in the Graham Road/Medical Lake development area with varying degrees of surviving Nike-era fabric.

Chronology

• June 1945 The U.S. military initiated development of the Nike guided-missile air-defense system.
• 1953 Nike Hercules development was under way as the planned successor to Nike Ajax.
• 1954 The Army Corps of Engineers began land-survey and acquisition work for Nike defenses in many U.S. defense areas, including the Fairchild/Spokane region.
• April 1956 Construction of Fairchild-area Nike batteries began.
• January 1957 F-45 at Medical Lake became operational as a Nike Ajax battery.
• 1957 Fairchild-area Nike Ajax batteries were active at F-07 Spokane/Airway Heights, F-37 Cheney/Four Lakes, and F-45 Medical Lake.
• September 1958 F-87 Deep Creek, the fourth Fairchild Defense Area Nike battery, became active.
• 1958 An Army Air-Defense Command Post was established for the Fairchild Defense Area at Mica Peak Air Force Station for Nike command-and-control functions.
• June 1960 F-07 and F-37 closed as the Fairchild Defense Area consolidated around Hercules-capable batteries.
• June 1960 F-45 began conversion from Nike Ajax to Nike Hercules.
• December 1, 1960 F-45 operational with Nike Hercules missiles.
• 1961 F-45 and F-87 were the two remaining Nike Hercules batteries in the Fairchild Defense Area.
• March 1966 F-45 was deactivated.

List of all Nike Installations in the Fairchild Defense Area

List of all Nike Installations in Washington