[SaveFerris]

We dropped from 500 active to 450 I seem to recall.

Is that correct?

Love the photos where the breakaway pads are shaking off. Worked with a guy who was at a B-1 base when it was nuclear; he told me about those pads. Next idea.

[pfflier]

Yes. When I left the USAF we had 1,000 at 5 bases. We have negotiated that away to 450 at three bases.

The missile with the "breakaway pads" was the LGM 118 Peacekeeper, the famous M-X. It was and should have been the replacement for the Minuteman III. It was decomissioned years ago as part of SALT agreements.

[OldMissileer]

Love the photos where the breakaway pads are shaking off. Worked with a guy who was at a B-1 base when it was nuclear; he told me about those pads. Next idea.

If you are writing about the pads that fall off the side of the missile when it leaves the Launch Tube then you are describing the Peacekeeper ICBM. That missile was deactivated years ago. The only active ICBMs in our inventory are the Minuteman IIIs and they are a 'hot launch" missile. The engines fire while the missile is still in the Launch Tube and bolted to the Thrust Mount. When a Minuteman III leaves the hole that hole is basically destroyed, except out at Vandenberg AFB where the silos are configured to allow for refurbishment.