Nike Missile Site L-31 Launcher, Limestone Maine

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This location was part of the Loring AFB Defense Area

Site ID: L-31

Site Role: Launcher
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.

Four Nike Ajax sites were placed around Loring AFB: L-13 (Caswell), L-31 (Limestone), L-58 (Caribou), and L-85 (Conner), with headquarters facilities located at Loring. The New England Division of the Army Corps of Engineers managed the construction of these sites. Manned by Regular Army units, these sites provided defense for Loring AFB and the northeastern approaches to the United States. In 1960, sites L-13 and L-58 underwent conversion from Ajax to Hercules missiles and remained operational until 1966.

L-31 was positioned to the southeast of Loring AFB, approximately five miles away, and was only active from September 1957 through September 1958. It was notably one of the shortest-lived Nike sites in the country, active for only about 12 months before being deactivated while its sister sites continued operating.

The IFC area (designated L-31C) would have been positioned on a separate elevated parcel near the launch area, though specific separate IFC coordinates for this site are not broken out in available records given its brief operational life. Many of the buildings and much of the original infrastructure remain on site today, accessible via Nike Road off Grand Falls Road near Limestone.