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Nike Missile Fairchild Defense Area

Four sites initially protected the Spokane region and the Strategic Air Command Base at Fairchild. Nike Ajax Batteries were built and activated at (F-07) Spokane, (F-37) Cheney, and (F-45) Medical Lake in 1957; the fourth battery at (F-87) Deep Creek was built and activated in 1958. Medical Lake was converted to Hercules missiles in 1960 and 1961. Headquarters facilities were located at Fairchild.

The Seattle District of the Corps of Engineers had land acquisition, design, and construction supervision responsibilities. The Army deactivated the Nike Ajax batteries in 1960. The two Nike Hercules batteries remained activated until 1966.

Fairchild's importance explains why the Army built Nike batteries in this part of eastern Washington. The airfield originated during World War II as Spokane Army Air Depot, a repair and supply depot for aircraft returning from the Pacific war. After World War II it became a Strategic Air Command base. By the middle 1950s, Fairchild was transitioning into one of the major SAC bomber and tanker bases in the Northwest. It had hosted B-29 and B-36 forces and then converted to B-52 Stratofortress bombers beginning in 1956; KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft followed in 1958. The same air base later hosted Atlas E intercontinental ballistic missiles under the 567th Strategic Missile Squadron, but F-07 itself was part of the Army air-defense layer, not the Air Force strategic-missile force.

The Fairchild Nike mission was a Cold War point-defense mission. Nike Ajax batteries were not intended to deter attack by threatening retaliation; they were intended to intercept attacking aircraft if deterrence failed. Fairchild's bomber, tanker, nuclear-support, and later missile-related functions made it an obvious target in a strategic war. The Nike sites gave the region a local defensive system capable of engaging high-altitude bomber formations before they could attack the air base or associated Spokane-area military infrastructure.