Western Electric System 1393 Radar Course Directing Central
 Viewed from left of battery control console
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Closeup of PPI display
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The Western Electric System 1393 Radar Course Directing Central (RCDC) was a Cold War complex of radar/computer systems within the overall Improved Nike Hercules Air Defense Guided Missile System (separate from the missiles, storage and launch equipment, and command post equipment). The RCDC was installed at the "battery control areas" (Integrated Fire Control areas) of ~5 hectares (12 acres) each which was for commanding a nearby missile Launching Area (LA), firing a missile from the LA, and guiding a launched missile to a burst point near an enemy aircraft.
The Radar Course Directing Central included a defense acquisition radar ("ACQR" e.g., General Electric AN/MPQ-43 High Power Acquisition Radar), a Target Tracking Radar (TTR), and a radar/computer subsystem for controlling the MIM-14 Nike-Hercules. The RCDC Director's Console with 4 cabinets included the electro-mechanical Servo Computer Cabinet with the analog ballistics computer ("Intercept Computer") which calculated the relative location of a launched Nike missile (measured by a Missile Tracking Radar, MTR) to the TTR track of an enemy aircraft or formation. After launch, the ground-controlled interception algorithm guided the missile to a calculated point where the missile was detonated and conventional warhead fragments (3 HE warheads) or a nuclear warhead's blast were to neutralize the target. The Central also had a mode for surface-to-surface missions to airburst a nuclear Hercules over a ground target, and the RCDC included a Missile Motion Generator to simulate a Nike trajectory. After the 10 Army Air Defense Command Posts with Missile Master bunkers were operational in December 1960, battery control areas also had an AN/TSQ-8 Firing Unit Interface Facility for the automated data link (ADL) of digital information between the RCDC and the AADCP's Martin AN/FSG-1 Antiaircraft Defense System.
Personnel of the Nike "Fire Control Platoon" at the RCDC included the Battery Control Officer (BCO), IFC crewmen (specialty 16C20 such as Acquisition Radar crewman, TTR elevation operator, MTR Fireman, etc.), Nike Radar and Computer Repairmen (23N2P), etc.
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