Missile Master protected the skies at Fort Miles

The potential military value of airplanes became clear nearly as soon as the Wright Brothers touched down from their first flight. Almost immediately after came the need for protection from this new threat.

In the United States, the Army was responsible for the anti-aircraft defense of cities and military sites. Before the 1950s, anti-aircraft defenses were largely made up of artillery guns designed to shoot down attacking planes.

By the end of World War II, even advanced anti-aircraft guns had difficulty against the high-flying, jet-powered aircraft many nations were using. The U.S. Army began developing surface-to-air missiles through Project Nike, and in 1954, the first of these weapons entered service. However, Nike missiles still had an old problem: each battery (group) of Nike launchers needed its own team to identify a threat and fire a missile at it. This was ineffective and could potentially allow enemy targets to get through. The solution was Missile Master, a radar and communications network that linked all the Nike batteries in an area into a single control system.

In 1957, the Washington-Baltimore defense area became the first to have an active Missile Master system. Centered at Fort Meade, Md., it was operated by the 35th Artillery Brigade. Just as early cellphone networks had dead zones without signal, there were areas along the coast that Fort Meade’s central radar array could not cover. The U.S. Army created gap-filler radar sites to fix the issue, including one at Fort Miles.

The Fort Miles site began as an experimental station on top of the World War II-era Fire Control Tower 12. By 1959, however, the radar set had become too large for the tower to support. The 40-foot-wide radar dish was moved to the top of Battery 519, an underground gun bunker built in the 1940s. Electronics equipment was installed in the north and central sections of the battery, while living quarters were built in the south section. Soldiers from the 35th Artillery Brigade lived and worked inside this building, which became known as Radar-1. Inspectors from Fort Meade made monthly trips to the site to ensure everything was functioning correctly. These regular inspections demonstrate how important the site was to Fort Meade’s system.

Radar-1 shut down in November 1963 as newer, more advanced technology removed the need for many gap-filler sites. Although Radar-1 never had to identify an enemy target, those who operated the system at Fort Miles were an important part of the United States’ anti-aircraft defense during the early years of the Cold War. Today, visitors to the park can see Tower 12 near the campground and explore the site of Radar-1 with a trip to the Fort Miles Museum located inside Battery 519.

For information on tours and events, go to destateparks.com/fortmiles.