[6ppc]

Just curious...why did we scrap the MX missles? We still have Minute Man missles, so why did we get rid of the MX which is a newer design?

[TalonDJ]

We still have Minute Man missles, so why did we get rid of the MX which is a newer design?

I am not 'in the know' on this but there are several likely reasons. One was that they MX was larger. With global threats being different the bigger missiles seem less useful than ones with fewer warheads. Also I think we were not able to keep them fully loaded with warheads due to a treaty limiting MIRVs on a single launcher (not sure, I forget where I read that). Finally I suspect a big reason was the maintenance costs of the MX's unique 'cold launch' system that used pressurized gas to shoot them missile out of the silo before engine ignition. Something like that probably took more upkeep than the normal 'light it in the silo' systems. Finally, it is nice to note that the more advanced warheads from the MXs were moved over to still active MinuteMan systems.