Nike Sprint ABM Launch

The Sprint was a nuclear-armed point defense ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile), which was developed in the 1960s as one component of an American defense system against Soviet ICBMs. It was operational for a very short time in 1975.

The cone-shaped Sprint missile was powered by a two-stage solid-propellant rocket motor. The motor ignited after the missile had been ejected from its silo by gas pressure, and accelerated the Sprint with more than 100 g. Within seconds, the missile reached a speed of Mach 10+, and the extreme thermodynamic heating demanded sophisticated ablative shielding (the nose was already glowing red-hot less than a second after launch). The Sprint was guided to the target by radio-commands from the ground control system, which used high-speed phased-array MSRs to track the incoming ICBM reentry vehicles. The command uplink had to be powerful enough to work through the exhaust plume and the plasma sheathe around the missile body. Sprint's first stage used fluid-injection jet vanes for control, and the second stage had four small moving fins. The missile was armed with a 1 kT W-66 enhanced radiation thermonuclear warhead, which was detonated by ground command. It destroyed the target's warhead not only with the nuclear blast, but mainly with the very high neutron flux. The whole flight time for an intercept was expected to be not more than 15 seconds.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Nike
• Sprint
• nuclear
• weapons
• anti
• ballistic
• missile
• endoatmospheric
• ABM
• missiles
• Safeguard
• System
• aviation
• space

[Ryuinfinity]

Really good video! The beginning part must be slow motion though? Is it?

[jaglavaksoldier]

Yes...

[jackasskid2]

Nike- Just nuke it.

[agadhahab1]

Anyone else notice WILLLIAM motherfucking SHATNER narrating?

[marmaladekamikaze]

@agadhahab1

Yes, what film or documentary is this from?

[LegionCWAM]

Nike Airmax !

[chrthiel]

@EnigmaNZ1

Nike Sprint didn't really work all that well back then and they were hellishly expensive to operate, hence why they were shut down, so there would be little point in modernising them.

[sakoshooter48]

@YetAnotherGH Did you catch the U.S. Navy's close in laser defense in action this morning? Holy fuck, everyone else might has well just go home!

[sakoshooter48]

I giggle every time I see the interceptor glow incandescently as it blows through Mach 10!!!!!!!

[YetAnotherGH]

Sprint only accelerated at around 100 Gs. HIBEX was the one with the hilarious 400 G acceleration.

These cold-war ABM missiles are totally untenable today because they were pretty much all nuclear-tipped.

[EnigmaNZ1]

The missile is supposed to be supersonic as it leaves the silo, then accelerate at 400g towards the target. Not bad for the era. Instead of spending billions on replicating this today, they should have just updated the electronics in these old missiles.

[Ryuinfinity]

Sorry for sounding like an idiot, but I don't really know anything about missiles!