Word: silo
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Last week, seconds after its engines spouted orange flame, a Minuteman rose out of the inferno of its underground "silo" at Cape Canaveral, passed through the preceding smoke ring caused by the shock waves of its blast, and roared out into the South Atlantic on a test run that was considered perfect...
...moment when it will become an operational part of the U.S. arsenal. Last week airmen and officers at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base were being trained to fire Minutemen. Slogging through knee-deep snow, workmen in Montana were well along on the project of digging 150 silo missile sites that will be scattered like giant gopher holes across 20,000 sq. mi. By late next fall, a full year ahead of the original schedule, the first 50 Minutemen will go operational in Montana. And by 1965, the Air Force will have between 750 and 900 Minutemen...
...Silent Silo. Cushioned in their air-conditioned concrete silos, the Minutemen will be able to withstand all but direct nuclear hits; the Air Force estimates that the U.S.S.R. would have to fire some 20 missiles at a single Minuteman site to have a 90% chance of a kill. Even the commodes in the control center will be mounted on rubber to withstand nuclear shock. A door weighing 45 tons will close off each silo to the sky. If an attack heaps earth and other debris over the door, it can be blasted open...
...Minuteman waits in its silo, its guidance system will stare fixedly at the North Star, its silent gyroscope will spin ceaselessly. Cranked into its memory drums will be the data to guide the missile to any one of several targets. The guidance system itself cannot be jammed by electronics once it is set in motion...
Construction at Complex 2-A is now completed, and its Titans are being readied. Around the U.S., as other work progresses, 50 other missiles will be in place by year's end. By 1963, several Minuteman silos will be completed daily; an impressive arsenal of about 200 missiles will be primed and ready. Safely underground and protected against counterfire, they will serve as a grim reminder that the U.S. is well able to strike back against aggression of whatever magnitude. In the long run, that ability may be the deterrent that will keep the silo doors closed...