Press reports and Pentagon briefings have put the number of ICBMs at 400. Fig.4 Missileers in control center Fig.5 Women missileers from the 90th Operations Group Silos Figure 4 shows an underground launch control center. The National Park Service has a history of how women became missileers. The people who work in the Missile Alert Facilities are called missileers. The security gate to the MAF is 968 feet from the road.Įach MAF normally commands the missiles in 10 silos but any one MAF may control 50 silos if needed. This is the entrance to the 341st Missile Wing, 490th Missile Squadron M-01 in Monroe, Montana off of Fig.3 M01 in Monroe, MTįigure 3 shows a Google Maps street-view of the entrance to a MAF. A helicopter pad is shown in the lower portion of the photo. The green pond in the upper-right of the photo is the ‘poo pond’ that processes waste. Ther are also sleeping quarters and eating areas above ground. The central buiding houses the elevator to take the missileers down to the underground control center. If those centers fail to carry out a launch order, specially-configured E‑6B airborne command posts, nicknamed ‘Doomsday Planes’, can take over.įigure 2 shows a satellite view of a MAF. Underground launch control centers, called Missile Alert Facilities (MAF), that are within miles of the missile silos, control missile launch for 10 silos normally,Īnd its ten silos is called a ‘flight’. Today's W78 warheads are 23 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki on Aughad a yield of 20 kilotons. Note: The Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aughad a yield of 15 kilotons. Optionally, a missile may contain a single W87 475-kiloton warhead to attack a single target. It does not rely on GPS or visual sighting to strike its targets.Ī missile may have a MIRVed warhead, containing three W78 350-kiloton warheads, to attack three targets. The Minuteman III has an inertial navigation guidance system that is entirely internal. Launched from a Montana silo, a Minuteman III would take about 20 minutes to reach Moscow-its speed is not constant along its It has a maximum range of 6,200 miles and a Fig.1 Minuteman IIIĪll missiles in the silos are currently Minuteman III (LGM-30G). See the locations of all silos on the Cold Ware ICBM Silos page. Silos have been deactivated because of treaty obligations, missile obsolescence, and Congressional belt-tightening.ĭeactivated silos were located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, New York, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. There were more active silos in the past. If you're using an IOS device like an iPhone or iPad, double-tapping the display zooms in but tapping does not zoom Mouse with a scroll wheel, the wheel controls zooming. The lower righthand corner of the Google Maps display has a plus sign and a minus sign that controls zooming. Mountain ranges, similar to looking at a relief map. When you select the Map view, you can turn on terrain features by clicking or touching the Terrain box. You can turn off the labels if they obstruct your view. The labelsĪre the names of places, businesses, cities, etc. The satellite view allows you to see the actual military facility when you zoom in. The Map/Satellite control in the upper lefthand corner of the screen lets you choose either the normal map view or the satellite view. You can exit out of full screen by pressing the Escape key or clicking the control in the upper righthand corner of the display. This full-screen feature is not available on Apple IOS devices like the iPad. The Full Screen control in the upper righthand corner of the Google Maps display expands the display to cover the entire computer screen.
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