Nike Missile Site L-85 IFC, Conner Maine

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This location was part of the Loring AFB Defense Area

Site ID: L-85

This site controlled the missiles at the Launch Area located here.

Site Role: IFC
A typical Nike air defense site consisted of two separate parcels of land. One area was known as the Integrated Fire Control (IFC) Area. This site contained the Nike system's ground-based radar and computer systems designed to detect and track hostile aircraft, and to guide the missiles to their targets.

The second parcel of land was known as the Launcher Area. At the launcher area, Nike missiles were stored horizontally within heavily constructed underground missile magazines. A large, missile elevator brought the Nikes to the surface of the site where they would be pushed across twin steel rails to one of four satellite launchers.

Elaboration on how Nike worked here.

L-85 was one of four Nike Ajax sites placed around Loring AFB, along with L-13 (Caswell), L-31 (Limestone), and L-58 (Caribou), manned by Regular Army units from the 3rd Missile Battalion, 61st Artillery, providing defense for Loring AFB and the northeastern approaches to the United States.

The four Nike sites were constructed during 1956, with L-85 located near Connor Township. Unlike its sister sites L-13 and L-58, L-85 was never converted to Nike Hercules and was deactivated earlier than those two sites, which remained operational until 1966.

Notably, the IFC area of L-85 (designated L-85C) was later repurposed as the Louis Blotner RBSS (Remote Bomb Storage Site), a post-closure Air Force use that was a fairly unique fate among Maine Nike sites.

The "85" designation places L-85 at roughly 306 degrees from north (west-northwest) of the Loring AFB center point, positioning it on the western flank of the defensive ring around the base.