The 52nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment is an air defense artillery regiment of the United States Army first organized in 1917 as a railway gun unit. It continued in that role unit 1943, when the regiment was broken in separate railway gun battalions, and in the following year the units were reorganized and redesignated as field artillery.

On 25 October 1962, in response to the buildup of Russian missiles in Cuba, the 2nd Missile Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery (Nike Hercules) was deployed from the 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bliss, Texas, to south Florida under the command of the 13th Air Defense Artillery Group. The south Florida units arrived with conventional high explosive warheads. In August 1963, the Army assigned the troops under the control of the 13th Artillery Group to the 53rd Artillery Brigade and the 2nd Region of Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM). The soldiers could now go off TDY status and bring their families, cars, and personal effects to south Florida. They could also move into more permanent living facilities and get access to amenities available at permanent installations.