Request: US Missile Launchers

[MG 3]

There are a lot of pictures of Russian, Pakistani, Indian and other Mobile ballistic missile launchers on the internet, but I have not seen any pics of US launchers. So can anyone help me out?

[ViktorNavorski]

I don't think the U.S. operate any land based mobile ballistic launcher.

[kilroy1911]

today there are no mobile launchers in US arsenal, cos there is no reason to have them. US have more effective delivery vehicles for tactical nuclear weapons and of course - they have the submarines! During cold war time - the US had Pershing 1 and 2 mobile ICBMs and some other SCUD/FROG-like unguided rockets - The Lance for example. Some rennaisance of mobile ballistic missiles is a new missile for MLRS - the ARMY TACTICAL MISSILE SYSTEM, ATACMS - Instead of 12 smaller missiles - one vehicle can carry 2 large missiles - probably for delivery of submunition. The range of such a vehicle is aprox 165 km and it was used during Desert Storm.

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

I don't think the U.S. operate any land based mobile ballistic launcher.

Partially develped, but never deployed


MGM-134 Midgetman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midgetman_missile)


The MGM-134 Midgetman, also known as the SICBM (see below), was an intercontinental ballistic missile developed by the United States of America.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/6707/ushml01uy9.jpg

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/1449/ushml03zy9.jpg

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8092/ushml06lc4.jpg

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2217/ushml04dg4.jpg

[sferrin]

One thing I'd like to point out is that you'll notice there is a blade there at the front of the trailer. The idea was to drag the trailer in the lowered position using the blade to dig into the ground. The trailer would then be left at the location and the cab driven away. Between the trailer's shape and sealing the edges off by burying them it would be resistent to flipping over from a nearby nuclear strike. This was tested subscale during the Minor Scale test.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/ops/minor-scale.htm

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

One thing I'd like to point out is that you'll notice there is a blade there at the front of the trailer. The idea was to drag the trailer in the lowered position using the blade to dig into the ground. The trailer would then be left at the location and the cab driven away. Between the trailer's shape and sealing the edges off by burying them it would be resistent to flipping over from a nearby nuclear strike. This was tested subscale during the Minor Scale test.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/ops/minor-scale.htm

Did not know that...thanks.

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

Also, on the topic of mobile US ICBM launch systems: Peacekeeper Rail Garrison


The survivability issue was to be solved by a "rail garrison" system whereby 25 trains, each with two missiles, would use the national railroad system to conceal themselves. It was intended that this system would become operational in late 1992, but budgetary constraints and the changing international situation led to it being scrapped. Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG-118A_Peacekeeper)


...These plans were interrupted in July 1985 when Congress limited Peacekeeper deployment to 50 missiles until the administration could produce a more survivable basing plan. President Reagan's solution for basing the remaining 50 missiles, announced 19 December 1986, was Peacekeeper Rail Garrison. Three days later, the 90th SMW achieved initial operational capability for Peacekeeper by placing the first flight of ten missiles on strategic alert. Full operational capability occurred in December 1988, when the 90th Strategic Missile Wing accepted the fiftieth Peacekeeper missile.

Under the rail garrison concept, the remaining Peacekeeper missiles would be placed on trains stationed at various U.S. Air Force installations. The 25 trains, each carrying two missiles, would deploy off-base and onto the national railroad network during periods of international tension to improve survivability. F.E. Warren AFB would serve as the Main Operating Base for the rail garrison force. In February 1987, the Air Force selected ten additional bases as candidate rail garrison locations. That same year, Congress appropriated $350 million to fund rail garrison research and development. Exercises conducted in 1988 tested and refined the concept of operations, and in May the Secretary of Defense authorized the Air Force to proceed with Peacekeeper Rail Garrison full scale development.

A further review of ICBM moderization produced a Presidential decision in April 1989 that limited the Peacekeeper system to the existing 50 missiles but directed they be redeployed from silos to rail garrison. In November, the Air Force announced the selection of seven bases to house Peacekeeper Rail Garrison. The Main Operating Base would be F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, and the other six bases were Barksdale AFB, Louisiana; Little Rock AFB, Arkansas; Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota; Dyess AFB, Texas; Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan; and Fairchild AFB, Washington. December 1992 was the date established for delivery of the first asset. Link (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/icbm/lgm-118.htm)

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/4289/uspeacekeeper01xh5.jpg

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1228/uspeacekeeper02cv1.jpg

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9531/uspeacekeeper07po3.jpg

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/1735/rgmx04ec2.jpg

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/8238/rgmx06mh4.gif

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/2977/rgmx02xw6.jpg

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/2852/rgmx01zd1.jpg

[sferrin]

Numerous methods of deploying the Peacekeeper were investigated and I wish somebody had all the details. Here's a few things I turned up:

"One of the first MX projects was the Vertical Shelter Ground System Definition Program which required
construction of an 18-foot diameter, 130-foot deep vertical silo for missile loading and egress (exit)
tests.
The egress mechanism was built to thrust a 348,000-pound simulated missile and canister out of the
silo to a height of 40 feet above ground after it burst through a 50,000-pound layer of soil."


"Extensive prototype tests were conducted at the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station to adapt Corps of Engineers (CE) flexible pavement design criteria to pavements to be used in the MX missile program. The initial shell game concept for dispersing the MX missiles required construction of approximately 8,000 miles of roads capable of sustaining numerous passes of a missile transporter weighing about 1,500,000 lb. This research resulted in increased knowledge of the performance of pavements subjected to heavy loads. Prototype test sections of bituminous surface-treated roads and gravel-surfaced roads were designed and constructed using current CE criteria. The test sections were trafficked to the design number of operations using a trafficking rig simulating the MX missile transporter. The trafficking rig was equipped with two load tires in line, each approximately 8 ft tall by 3 ft wide, inflated to 65 psi, and having a loaded weight of 62,500 lb. Test traffic was placed on the pavement and conditions were monitored for pavement distress. Analysis of the resulting test data led to the connclusion that existing CE criteria can be modified to provide a more economical pavement than was previously expected for very heavy loads. Most distress appeared in the form of deeper consolidation caused by the very heavy loads on the unusually large tires. Other load parameters such as contact area and contact pressure were in more typical ranges and, therefore, gave more typical results. (Author)"



There were a LOT of different methods investigated. One would have them in a long concrete tunnel maybe ten feet under the ground and if the alarm came hydraulic rams would raise the canister into position shoving aside the concrete roof and overlying dirt in the process. I remember seeing footage of this test on the news back in the day and it was pretty impressive.

Another was the shell game. Imagine each missile deployed on a "racetrack" with 23 hardened shelters dispersed around it and a giant transporter shuffling a missile between them randomly. If it got caught in the open it would simply raise the missile and fire it. If not, it would back up to the front of the shelter like a semi backing up to a loading dock and the canister would be "fed" into the shelter. Each shelter could also raise the canister into position and fire the missile.

"Case Against the MX, a Shell Game That Could Misfire; MX: Prescription for Disaster, by Dr. Herbert Scoville Jr. Cambridge: The MIT Press. $6.95 (paperback)

By Burke Wilkinson

In the jaunty jargon of Armageddon, the delivery vehicle for the hotly debated MX missile is called "the bus," and the independently targetable missiles themselves are the "passengers." In the same ghoulish lexicon, the cluster of 23 shelters that would conceal one live and mobile missile is the "race course."

On the drawing board, the race course is being supplanted by a series of clusters (hardened silos) in line ahead, connected by straight roads. But the nightmarish shell game remains the same. The Soviets must guess which silo contains the live missile. In order to be absolutely sure that they knock it out, they would have to saturate all 23 clusters in the area.

The size and cost of the project -- approved in principle during the Carter administration -- are staggering. The number of proposed cluster areas is 200. They would require 50,000 square miles in Utah and Nevada, a slice of America the size of Alabama. Cost as of today's fast escalating estimate: $120 billion. "



Another was the "super hard silo". From what I recall they tested silos that could withstand up to 50,000 psi (today's are about 2,000 psi). There was a photo in Airforce Magazine back in the day of one of the tests. There was a huge crater in the ground and there sticking up in the middle of it was the concrete silo unscratched.


Don't remember exactly what they were using the tunnel machine for but it was in the mix somewhere too.

[sferrin]

This has been posted before but it seemed like a good place to put it. A Midgetman launch test.

http://rapidshare.com/files/4184338/MIDGETMAN.mpg.html

[8thidpathfinderpower]

wasn't the minuteman or was it the peacekeeper launched from a C5A galaxy?

[sferrin]

wasn't the minuteman or was it the peacekeeper launched from a C5A galaxy?

Minuteman.

[sir-chimp]

If I recall right there was a short period in the 60's when we did deploy ICBM's via trains. Seems to me I have read several sources stating so, but its been a while.

[Hydro]

Not strictly ballistic, but IIRC the US operated land based Tomahawk launchers.

[sferrin]

If I recall right there was a short period in the 60's when we did deploy ICBM's via trains. Seems to me I have read several sources stating so, but its been a while.

They studied it a lot and might have actually done some testing but I don't think they even got to the point of test launching a missile from a train, let alone deploying them.

[sferrin]

Not strictly ballistic, but IIRC the US operated land based Tomahawk launchers.

The Us has had several but nothing like the degree the USSR/Russia has. The US had Pershing Is & IIs, Gryphons (the land Tomahawks), Mace As and Bs and that's about it. There was going to be MMRBM (think an earlier SS-20 without MIRVs).

[szr]

Hard Mobile Launcher wins on cool points. I want one.

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

Hard Mobile Launcher wins on cool points. I want one.

Might be a problem...I think we only made one.

[MG 3]

Thanks a lot guys!!!!

One reason I think the US doesn't them is because they do not face a ground based threat and mobile launchers are best is such a situation.

[sferrin]

Might be a problem...I think we only made one.

Well there was always the loser ;)

[Hellfish]

What museum are these things located at? White Sands?

[sferrin]

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=541

http://www.hill.af.mil/museum/photos/coldwar/HML.htm


Funny, that 2nd one is only about ten miles from here at Hill AFB. Didn't even know they had it.

[Diadochoi]

Does anyone have any info on MX/Peacekeeper experimental TEL?
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