Posted on 08/15/2020 11:02:40 AM PDT by re_tail20
The land-based leg of the United States’ nuclear triad is the Minuteman III. The Minuteman family has served with distinction as the bedrock of America’s land-based strategic nuclear force since the early 1960s. There are approximately 440 Minutemen currently in the United States’ nuclear arsenal.
It is also the United States’ longest-range missile, and tops out at about 13,000 kilometers, or just over 8,000 miles, giving the United States a truly global reach. The missiles are overseen by the U.S. Air Force, with the majority of the missiles about evenly distributed in the United States’ north and west, at missile launch sites in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
Under the New START treaty, the United States’ Minutemen were somewhat defanged—as of 2016, the Minutemen III missiles have just a single warhead each. Originally, each of the 500 or so missiles were equipped with three warheads each, for a grand total of about 1,500 warheads.
They certainly highly capable—and possibly the most powerful missile system in existence, but the mighty Minutemen III have been in operation for about half a century. Though the missiles are periodically upgraded and serviced, their usefulness is not set to last much longer, and the missiles are slated for replacement before the end of the decade, in or around 2027.
The Ground Based Strategic Deterrent is the Minuteman III’s replacement. Though the exact details of the program are a bit scant, some aspects of the program are known.
In 2017, both Northrop Grumman and Boeing were awarded contracts to develop their own Minuteman III replacement. Both contracts are said to be worth over around $330 million.
If all goes according to schedule, one of the two companies will be selected to build the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent missile in August of this year, although production delays...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Barringe ......Get the ICBMs warmed up in the bull pen ready to fly
Trust me Harris has launched more missles than anyone
I’m now going to have to plan a trip there. Thanks a bunch...LOL i had no idea this existed but have to see it. bucket list for sure.
Nukes have a finite lifespan and need to be rebuilt or replaced, it turns out...
Problem still remains, and now he’s mad at you. You can’t launch without him cooperating with you, and if you kill him, he can’t launch.
BTW, that is precisely the way it was designed in case the person wanting to launch WAS the nut and not a mutineer. A nut couldn’t start a nuclear war.
Nike Zeus was cancelled in 1963 and the last test article flew in 1966, with the last use of the system in 1967. We haven’t had an anti-ballistic missile capability since, until the advent of the National Missile Defense system (now GMD - Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System) in 1997.
More silos on the market ? Isn’t it saturated already?
Are the new missiles going to be called “Minutepersons”?
It’s about time. I worked on the MX missile (“Peacekeeper”) at Martin Marietta back in the early 80s. It carried 10 warheads and was far more accurate than the Minuteman III, but sadly they were negotiated away in the START treaty, and were dismantled.
START requires the silos to be imploded. I’d love to have a launch complex....
On the other hand, I should add that the threat of those 10-headed beasts, along with SDI, was one of the key factors that drove the Soviet Union into the ground.
Was it 1977 Twilight’s Last Gleaming ?
Been by there many times on the way to Florida.
Thanks for serving, i was active 1975 to 1981. i saw the world, most of it is water.
I had many friends spend their time underground getting their MBAs.
There was also the Safeguard missile defense complex. It was decommissioned in 1976 after being operational for just a few months. Probably would not have been very effective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_R._Mickelsen_Safeguard_Complex
War games. It was the intro to the movie.
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