Nike Missile Site SC-01, Bennington Kansas

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This location was part of the Schilling AFB Defense Area

SC-01 was located approximately 5 miles SSE of Bennington, Kansas, in the Schilling AFB Defense Area. The site was active only from April 1960 to June 1960, but it was never operational.

Schilling AFB was slated to receive two Nike Hercules batteries to defend its Atlas F missile launch facilities. However, with construction well under way, the Defense Department decided to cancel the project. A headquarters unit posted at Schilling was operational for only two months in the spring of 1960.

The companion site, SC-50, was similarly abandoned at the same time, located about 5 miles SSW of Smolan, Kansas. Both sites were sold to private landowners and their current physical condition is unknown. SC-01 being designated "01" places it due north of the Schilling AFB center point, consistent with the Nike numbering convention.

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.

Current site status: unknown