Nike Missile IFC Site HM-40, B Battery

The Cold War in South Florida

Nike Missile Site HM-40 was built in direct response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, widely regarded as the moment the Cold War came closest to erupting into full-scale nuclear conflict. Several factors drove Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro’s decision to station nuclear missiles in Cuba, chief among them the desire to enhance their ability to strike the United States. Cuba also feared another U.S.-backed invasion following the failed Bay of Pigs operation, as well as continued terrorist attacks carried out by CIA-supported Cuban exiles.

Establishment of Nike Missile Sites

On October 31, 1962, several battalions arrived in South Florida and established campsites on the outskirts of Miami. Traveling by train under the cover of night, the soldiers carried only minimal equipment. Working under primitive conditions, they quickly set up operational air defense systems. Once the missiles were assembled and armed with warheads, Florida Highway Patrol troopers escorted five-ton Army transport trucks from Homestead Air Force Base to deployment sites in Carol City, Perrine, and the Everglades.

Battery A initially set up operations at site HM-65, located near the main entrance to Everglades National Park. The site quickly proved problematic, as the commander had disregarded the warnings of local farmers and placed the battery in a flood-prone area. Conditions improved significantly after the unit relocated to its permanent station at HM-69, situated within the Hole-in-the-Donut section of the park. Battery D was set up further north, about seven miles directly west of Miami, along today’s Krome Avenue, while Battery C operated near Carol City.

B Battery was not in the initial deployments as the battalion was involved in a series of nuclear tests in the Pacific. On November 4, 1962, B Battery participated in a test known as Tightrope from the Johnston Atoll with between 1–40 kiloton W31 warheads in Operation Fishbowl. The successful “kill” at 21 km (69000 ft) altitude, the Nike Hercules missile test, is regarded to be the last true atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the United States.

Upon returning from the Pacific, B Battery relocated near HM-65, and the site was designated as HM-66. This site would later serve as the location of Aerojet General’s rocket development facility. In two weeks, the Army Corps of Engineers worked around the clock, bringing truckloads of earthfill, in order to build an elevated land surface above the Everglades water level for missiles and radars.

Living Conditions at these Temporary Sites

Unlike most air defense sites, which were usually positioned near major cities or suburban areas, these primitive sites were established either deep in the Everglades or amid the bean and rocky tomato fields of southern Dade County. At these isolated outposts, tactical generators ran nonstop to supply power. Soldiers lived in tents—at first little more than canvas roofs without walls or floors—and contended daily with swarms of mosquitoes, along with snakes, rats, and spiders. Security at HM-66 consisted of six rows of stacked concertina razor wire, eight 50-caliber machine gun emplacements, and armed walking sentries.

With no showers on-site, men bathed in nearby canals or improvised by using their helmets to wash. To improve living conditions, the Army soon laid wooden floors inside tents and built raised walkways to keep paths dry between battery areas. Permanent shower facilities followed, offering some relief and lifting morale. Still, as officer Thomas Kirkpatrick of C Battery noted, “little could be done to ameliorate the heat, humidity, and effects of the insects. Altogether, it was a rather rustic existence.”

The placement of the sites was driven primarily by tactical requirements and the demands of each weapons system, which often meant establishing them in flood-prone areas. Although residents cautioned commanders about the risks, their warnings were not always taken seriously.

The massive Nike Hercules missiles frequently sank into the soft, unstable ground, while Florida’s humid, subtropical climate wreaked havoc on sensitive electronics. To combat flooding and create stable platforms, soldiers drained the sites and worked the land—plowing, scraping, and compacting the rough coral soil until it was dry and level enough to support operations.

Permanent Facilities

In the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, military planners acknowledged a critical oversight: Florida had been left out of the nation’s air defense network. The discovery of Soviet missiles and jet bombers stationed in Cuba—just ninety miles from U.S. shores—underscored the strategic importance of South Florida and Key West. Responding to this threat, the Army announced in April 1963 that missile sites in the region would become a permanent part of the Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM), tasked with deterring and defending against any future Soviet aggression.

The construction program carried an estimated price tag of $17 million. To address the immediate needs of soldiers in the field, ARADCOM also launched a rapid improvement plan aimed at raising morale. Roughly $600,000 was allocated for upgraded mess halls, water purification systems, tent lighting, and drainage projects. These measures were intended to make the sites more livable in the short term while more substantial, permanent facilities were designed and built.

Nike Missile Site HM-40

In 1965, B Battery was relocated to a permanent site on North Key Largo, built by the Army Corps of Engineers and re-designated HM-40. When the site was first built, the highway was on the east side of the site and was actually the original State Road 4A. As the nearby community of Ocean Reef grew, the road was upgraded for a more direct route, built just west of the IFC site.

As with all other Nike Hercules sites, HM-40 was built with a total of five radars. The most noticeable was the high-powered acquisition radar (HIPAR), which had a geodesic fiberglass dome covering the actual radar antennae and had a range of over 150 miles. Nearby was the low-power acquisition radar (LOPAR), which was primarily used as a backup but helped in the way of accuracy, as the target location should be the same on both the HIPAR and LOPAR.

By the 1960s, electronic jamming became a concern, and the LOPAR’s different frequency was an advantage as both radars would have to be jammed. The other three radars were the Target Ranging Radar, the Target Tracking Radar, and the Missile Tracking Radar.

Decommissioning and Dismantling

The transition from bomber aircraft to missiles as the primary means of delivering nuclear weapons in the 1960s and 1970s marked the beginning of the end for ARADCOM and its continental U.S. (CONUS) air defense missile batteries. Mounting Vietnam War expenses, coupled with the Soviet bomber threat’s failure to materialize, ultimately sealed ARADCOM’s fate.

Florida’s units, however, proved the exception. While all other CONUS missile defense systems were deactivated in 1974, South Florida’s batteries remained active for another five years due to the region’s unique strategic value. After ARADCOM was dissolved, the units were transferred to U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), where they continued operating until 1979. That year, military planners determined that the defenses no longer contributed significantly to national security. The Florida sites were dismantled beginning in June, and the process was completed by early autumn.

After its abandonment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assumed ownership of the former HM-40 site from the Army to create the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in 1980. The refuge was established to protect critical breeding and nesting habitat for the endangered American crocodile and other wildlife, and included the demolition and removal of the launch area. Several buildings at the former IFC area remain, although in ruins.

Theft and Trespassing

In 2019, between February and April, around 600 pounds of copper wiring were stolen from the old missile base, worth about $1000. In August, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations agent provided a sheriff’s office detective with security camera photos of several people entering the property, one of them being Maikel Ramos Jimenez. The agent also provided the names of the owners of two vehicles seen on the property in the time frame of the copper thefts.

The detective contacted the Miami-Dade County Police Department for information on Jimenez and whether he had been selling copper at any scrap yards. He had been. On November 16, 2019, Jimenez was arrested and charged with a felony grand theft, as well as misdemeanor trespassing.

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