Replies

Something few like to talk about is the utter lack of road mobile ICBMs (or even IRBMs for that matter) which the US has. The closest we came was the Pershing - 2 IRBMs, threatened but never built by Reagan, for deployment in Europe to counter SS-20s. Today, not only do the Russians have road mobile ICBMs (and still, some quantity of IRBMs, perhaps secretly in quantities not in accordance with the INF Treaty, imagine that) but so too do the PRC. During the 1990s, the PRC used their deployments of Solid Fueled cold launched DF-15 and DF-21 IRBMs to roll out the mobility, now they are rolling out DF-41 as a mobile system. Counterforce plans are complicated by the mistmatch.

I might add, that where as the Soviets rolled the SS-20s into E. Europe where they implied a short flight time threat to Western European cities and US military installations there, when the PRC moved their latest generation IRBMs into Yunnan Province, where they similarly shadow Bangkok, KL and Jakarta, neither was there mention of the obvious analog to the earlier SS-20 situation by the US nor had there been any plan to do anything remotely similar to Reagan's response to the SS-20s; no ground launched cruise missiles, and no "Pershing 3" on the CAD system. Oh, and by the way, subsequently kowtowing to Beijing, ASEAN declared itself a "nuclear free zone" precluding any counterforce deployments there. Naturally, their level of paying tribute to Beijing has since increased dramatically. Still, we say or do nothing about it, gotta keep gettin' all the cheap garbage into Walmart and increasing strings of Christmas lights every year!

On December 19, 1986, the White House announced President Reagan's approval to develop a rail garrison system for basing part of the Peacekeeper Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) force. To increase survivability of this force, 50 Peacekeepers would be deployed in existing Minuteman silos and 50 more would be mounted on 25 USAF trains, two per train. Each train would consist of two locomotives, two security cars, two missile launch cars housing the missiles, one launch control car, one fuel car, and one maintenance car. Each launch car carried one Peacekeeper ICBM, in a launch tube which could be elevated to fire the missile from the bed of the car. The trains would be parked in shelters located on USAF Strategic Air Command bases throughout the continental U.S., with the missiles on continuous alert. When necessary, the trains could be dispersed onto the nation's rail network, making it extremely difficult for an enemy to target and destroy them. Development of the rail garrison deployment system was terminated in 1991 as Cold War tensions eased.

Copied this from USAF museum website. We would have had them, but I guess they figured it was not that important since the cold war was over and all. Ya right. Search 'peacekeeper railroad garrison car'. It has a nice picture of one