Posted on 10/21/2009 10:51:53 AM PDT by markomalley
Malmstom Air Force Base says it has completed the full deactivation of 50 missile launch facilities for Malmstrom Air Force Base's 564th Missile Squadron after two years of work.
A maintenance group put in more than 29,000 hours to remove all the major equipment and components from the 50 launch facilities, or silos, as well as the five missile alert facilities that controlled them.
Top military officials determined in early 2006 that it was no longer strategically necessary to keep 500 intercontinental ballistic missiles on alert nationwide.
The Air Force chose to deactivate the 564th, which lay northwest of Great Falls between Shelby and Dutton.
Malmstrom's other three missile squadrons remain in operation. Each squadron has 50 ICBMs.
See this Great Falls Tribune article which has more details...
I couldn’t think of a better time in American History in which to decrease our defensive capability, you know with the world being so safe and stuff. /sarc (I can’t believe we even have to put the sarc tag on posts anymore. I left my flame suit at home).
Obama and his socialists ilk are setting us up for a sunday punch. With empty silos, and the majority of our nuclear deterrant on a couple of subs (most in port or in KirklandAFB/NellisAFB/WhitmanAFB/BarksdaleAFB)...its now possible to neutralize our 2nd strike ability with as little as a dozen nukes.
I smell Peace Prize!!!!! - not.
Wow, I live 90 miles South of Malmstrom and feel so much safer now /sarc
Strategically these sites were useless. Fixed launch facilities have been rendered obsolete by advances in technology.
Are you sure? I can't believe an ICBM would be strategically useless in any form (except disassembled form), even as a dart to aim at a palace or something.
ICBM’s are not defensive weapons. Besides, as has been stated, fixed sites are obsolete.
What you are implying is using the booster for a non-nuclear preemptive weapon. Yes it would be effective. No, launching it from an existing and well known location for nuclear missiles is not smart. That would cause nuclear nations to possibly detect the launch, know it is from a location that has nuclear missiles, and launch on us in a defensive reaction. Better to move the missiles to a known non-nuclear location and declare them to all nuclear capable nations as non-nuclear weapons.
its now possible to neutralize our 2nd strike ability with as little as a dozen nukes.
Let’s hope that we won’t need these missile launch tubes in the future.Once their gone,their gone for good.This is occurring as our Russian friends are building ever larger,more capable I.C.B.M’s.
These sites wre originally designed for Minuteman II and built by Sylvaina (the light bulb folks) ISO Boeing. After the 150 Grand forks, ND sites (also Deuce)were inactivated in 1998 the cost of maintaining, let alone uprgrading to current REACT, CDB, etc, became prohibitive.
That said: Goodbye Deuce! I spent some good times and some terrifying times with you!
Check out my “about” page as I have a link to my Youtube account with a news interview I gave in a Deuce capsule at Grand Forks (shut down and destroyed a long time ago) back in 1988. You can see much of the equipment and how small the capsule is, yet the Boeing capsules (Deuce was built by Sylvania) are much smaller and less hardened.
MMII/CDB. Cable/Radio, Master/Slave. The Cadillac of ICBM Weapon Systems.
This was initiated under Rumsfeld. The odd squad had a different launch control system than the other three squadrons which was a maintenance and training problem for many years. The squadron was deactivated in 2008. One of the senators who tried to keep it from happening was none other than Maxie Pad Baucus.
Our submarine launched Tridents are our best weapons,
being that they are in unknown locations and ready to strike
on command.
Silos have served their purpose, but are obsolete today.
If we can develop a deep penetrator, our adversaries can as well.
Let’s hope that we won’t need these missile launch tubes in the future.Once their gone,their gone for good.This is occurring as our Russian friends are building ever larger,more capable I.C.B.M’s.
“on command”
Yeah, like BO will actually give the command if it is required...
I remember that interview. I was a Looking Glass Ops controller/airborne keyturner at the time. I started my AF career as a crewmember at that other frozen North Dakota base, Minot.
Of course I’m not implying that. I’m just saying that we are giving more backbone to our enemies by constantly tearing down and destroying. Go ahead and decommission ICBMs, that’s fine, just don’t let that lead the news about our military. The leading news should be that we just invented a weapon that kills more efficiently, not that we are tearing down our military prowess.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.