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Weapons

Minuteman I Source: Lawrence Livermore Lab

Minuteman II Source: US Air Force

Minuteman III Source: US Air Force

Peacekeeper Source: US Air Force

General Characteristics of Minuteman III Primary Function: Intercontinental ballistic missile Contractor: Boeing Co. Power Plant: Three solid-propellant rocket motors; first stage - Thiokol; second stage - Aerojet-General; third stage - United Technologies Chemical Systems Division Length: 59.9 feet (18 meters) Weight: 79,432 pounds (32,158 kilograms) Diameter: 5.5 feet (1.67 meters) Range: 6,000-plus miles (5,218 nautical miles) Speed: Approximately 15,000 mph (Mach 23 or 24,000 kph) at burnout Ceiling: 700 miles (1,120 kilometers) Thrust: First stage, 202,600 pounds Load: Re-entry vehicle: Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space MK 12 or MK 12A Guidance systems: Inertial system: Boeing North American; ground electronic/security system: Sylvania Electronics Systems and Boeing Co. Unit cost: $7 million Date deployed: June 1970, production cessation: December 1978 Inventory: Active force, 500; Reserve, 0; ANG, 0 (Source: U.S. Air Force)

 

General Characteristics of the Peacekeeper Missile Primary Function: Strategic deterrence Contractor: Boeing Power Plant: First three stages - solid propellant; fourth stage - storable liquid (by Thiokol, Aerojet, Hercules and Rocketdyne) Warheads: 10 Load: Avco MK21 re-entry vehicles Guidance System: Inertial; integration by Boeing North American, IMU by Northrop and Boeing North American Thrust: First stage, 500,000 pounds Length: 71 feet (21.8 meters) Weight: 195,000 pounds (87,750 kilograms) including re-entry vehicles Diameter: 7 feet, 8 inches (2.3 meters) Range: Greater than 6,000 miles (5,217 nautical miles) Speed: Approximately 15,000 miles per hour at burnout (Mach 20 at sea level) Date Deployed: December 1986 Unit Cost: $70 million Inventory: Active force, 50; ANG, 0; Reserve, 0 (Source: U.S. Air Force)

 

What does the government do with all the empty silos when the missiles that were housed in them are destroyed. The thing that happens to most silos is that they get blown up, but there are exceptions to this rule. Some get sold and at least one was donated to the National Park Service as an historical monument and a dummy missile was put back into it. In 1999, Congress established Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, the first park of its type. The park has a nuclear missile silo with a launch control facility.

Tour of launch facility in Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Source: National Park Service

Here are some pictures of a family that actually bought a silo and lives in it. I think they have make the place kind of cozy. These picture are being offered to view the surroundings, not the identities of the people.

Picture Source: National Park Service

We are not the only ones deactivating missile silos. Our treaty partner was the former Soviet Union. Here are some pictures of silos being deactivated in the Ukraine.

SS-19 Missile Silo

Missile Silo being destroyed

Missile storage area before destruction

Picture Source: U.S. Defense Department

I haven't heard of any reports of the Russians moving into an old missile silo, not to say that there might not be squatters living in one or more. Can you imagine if these silos were in New York City. They would never be able to launch a missile because there would be twenty people with all their furniture living in the launch tube.

I don't want to sound political here, but I personally don't see the need for any more silos, after all we have hundreds of missiles on submarines, thousands of cruise missiles, hundreds of bombers and no enemy to compare with the former Soviet Union. Lets hope that all missile silos become a thing of the past to be looked at as curiosities.