S.L. Sanger
IN THE FALL OF 1998, I drove to Great Falls, Montana, to interview a retired commanding officer of Malmstrom Air Force Base, for decades the operating center for a nuclear missile field that covers a large piece of central Montana. It was the first base for the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with the originals buried in underground silos beginning in 1962, just in time to be a threat to the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
While in Great Falls, I also did some solo touring of the missile field. I had never seen a land-based nuclear missile site and had not realized anyone could walk up to one, close enough to hear the hum of the underground machinery. At the time, there were 200 Minuteman III missiles scattered through central Montana, some with multiple hydrogen bomb warheads, each bomb 20 or more times powerful than the atomic bombs which devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
BECAUSE OF ARMS CONTROL agreements, Malmstrom's missile field has been reduced to 150 missiles, each with one H-bomb warhead. The United States land-based ICBM force adds up to 450 Minuteman III missiles based in five states -- Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska, and divided evenly between three air bases, Malmstrom, Minot and F.E. Warren.
THE MISSILES ARE 60 FEET LONG, about 5.5 feet in diameter and weigh about 40 tons, powered by three solid fuel rockets with a range of about 8,000 miles. To give perspective, the Kremlin is about 4,400 miles from Great Falls, which isn't very far considering the 15,000 miles an hour speed of the Minuteman III.
The Boeing Co. was the contractor with components from Thiokol, Aerojet-General, United Technolgies, and General Electric. Deployment began in 1962 with production ending in 1978. Modifications followed, which the Air Force calls "60 years of enhancement." Updates included greater accuracy, not quite pinpoint, although pinpoint accuracy is not always necessary with a nuclear weapon.
I GOT A GOOD INTERVIEW with the former Malmstrom commanding officer, retired Col. Terry Pehan, although the interview never saw print. My interest in Minuteman III continued and since 1998 I have spent a lot of time driving in Montana and to a lesser amount North Dakoka looking at missile sites and the unassuming "missile alert facilities," each of which handles 10 missiles from an underground capsule manned at all times by two Air Force officers with their secret codes and missile launch keys.
My missile site touring was made possible by a little book titled Nuclear Heartland, published in 1988, which contains detailed maps with directions to the 1,000 missile silos which then dotted the central and western United States, a total reduced by treaties to 450. I asked Col. Pehan if he had seen the book. "Yes," he said, "It's accurate."
EVEN A REDUCED MISSILE FORCE of 450 surprises many people who are otherwise reasonably well-informed. A frequent reaction to this number is: "Really, I thought that all ended with the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union," or: "Why do we need so many?"
THE NUMBER 450 SEEMS SMALL compared to the world's estimated total number of nuclear weapons, which is 17,700, the inventory of nine countries which possess nuclear capability, although it is not known how many countries have developed missiles with a global reach. Of this total, the United States has roughly 4,650 bombs considered operational, with 2,700 "retired," but still intact and available, for a total of about 7,400. Russia's estimated force is considered equivalent, although Russia does not disclose details of its current force. Russia's land-based ICBMs are estimated at 326 with 1,050 warheads, more than the U.S. land-based total. Together, the U.S. and Russia have about 95 percent of the world's inventory.
Bendix guides the warheads in,
Avco builds them nice.
Douglas, North American,
Grumman get their slice.
Martin launches off a pad,
Lockheed from a sub . . .
Convair boosts the satellite
Into orbits round;
Boeing builds the Minuteman,
We stay on the ground. . . .
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon. The novelist's view of America's military-industrial complex.
BOTH COUNTRIES ARE TRIPLE THREATS, with strategic weapons which are land, submarine or aircraft based.
These estimates are according to research reported by Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
SEE PHOTOS from my visits to missile sites in Montana and North Dakota, and tips on how to find a missile site, here. At left, Montana K-9.