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 ...
I believe that was “Wargames”.
I wonder what Skynet thinks of this?
Wow, early 1960s. That’s coming up on sixty years old.
I wonder how many lines of the original computer code are still in operation. I wonder if the control rooms for those silos are old fashioned or if they’ve been modernized. I could imagine those things being a true time capsule.
321st Strategic Missile Wing, 446th Strategic Missile Squadron, Missile Combat Crew, 1985-1989.
321st Organizational Missile Maintenance Squadron, Missile Mechanical Branch Chief, 1989-1992.
War Games.
Yeah, but the full-up missiles were taken out of military service.
We actually carried 38 Specials. S&W Model 15 Combat Masterpieces.
They were to be used to protect the Sealed Authenticators in case of an attempted break in.
As for turning keys, there were four other Launch Control Centers connected together in the Squadron and the 50 missiles only need to see two of those capsules turn keys to launch.
The Titan II ICBM was my first assignment when I was enlisted. I was on Missile Combat Crew with that system in Kansas. It was great but tough duty and I loved it.
Aside from it being deliberately limited, I seem to recall the Sprint missiles it was supposed to control not generally being guidable due to commo problems caused by the plasma envelope around it and they were working on a fix for the problem when it got canned, and the Spartan missiles it also controlled just not working (not in the sense that they wouldn’t fly, because they did) due to a flawed concept. I didn’t count it in workable ABM systems because I don’t think it ever actually worked as planned.
The Missile Maintenance Teams were my men and I never saw a “Board Man” doing that. If I had I would have busted him on the spot.
Also, that is a loaded missile in a real Launch Tube.
Why not Minot?
LOL.
5.56mm
Other than the psycological tests beforehand, were there any controls in place that would prevent two guys getting together and turning their keys? If you can’t disclose that - that’s fine.
An old boss of mine was part of a group that would look at airphotos of the USSR and change the targets of the missles at various intervals back in the early 60’s.
In the 80’s I was at a science convention with him and for lunch we were seated with a bunch of Russians. He asked one guy where he was from.
“Oh yeah - ABC town! Back in the day I would help in picking targets for our nukes. You guys had that big engine factory there - that was on our list.”
Then he did the same with all the others! I found it really funny - he was just treating it as matter of fact. And his memory with all of the details of the locations of things.
There seems to be this universal disconnect when it comes to anything digital, whereas it’s assumed to just be more secure, when in fact the opposite is quite true.
I had a VA appointment the other day and brought up the VA’s secure message system, whereby the VA communicates with veterans via the internet. I told her there was nothing secure about a government messaging system that goes directly to a home computer.
I would have gotten a better response if I had told her I was raped by a gang of Big Foot then abducted by a UFO.
My dad served in the 321st Field Missile Maintenance Wing in Grand Forks AFB, 1966-1971. Very cold climate, very warm people.
That’s too bad. What a waste.
A complex would be pretty cool, would cost a fair chunk to ‘update’. Have a 80 foot deep pool, personal heli&drone pads, AirBNB a couple of ‘em.. antelope running thru your garden
‘How I Learned to Love The Bomb’ ...?
More like “War Games”.
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