MINUTEMAN III ICBM DOCUMENTARY 2017

during the early decades of Air Force history there was a near constant awareness of the challenges posed by the nuclear age the sheer destructive power of nuclear weapons resulted in an uneasy peace based on a doctrine of mutually assured destruction the Air Force was initially the world's sole nuclear power after dropping the little man on Hiroshima but the Soviets tests of an atomic weapon in 1949 and the war in Korea heightened tension around the world the arms race between the US and the Soviet Union during the 1950s had begun on November 26th 1956 Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson assigned responsibility for developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to the air force the service responded by activating its first ICBM wing within a year the first ICBM was known as the Atlas it was able to strike a targeted area up to 500 miles away the u.s. wanted the capability to provide a quick action response and a reliable nuclear deterrent through a new concept that combines space technology with nuclear capability the first ICBM was born these missiles were fueled by mixing liquid fuel with oxidizer icbms that require liquid fuel to launch are known as hypergolic missiles due to the delay of adding liquid fuel the ICBMs took at least 30 minutes to prep for a launch other hypergolic missiles that were created after the Atlas included the Thor the Jupiter the Titan 1 and the Titan 2 as the missile systems improved the Air Force searched for a way to launch missiles even faster an Air Force missile designer Colonel Edward Hall pushed for a new concept involving solid propellant he designed solid fuel in the late 50s which was groundbreaking technology because it allowed for instant combustion this eliminated the time needed to add fuel before the launch not only was solid fuel more responsive but it was also more accurate enabled the missiles to travel further distance and it was much safer than the explosive process of mixing liquid fuel and oxidizer by 1958 the Air Force had its first solid fuel ICBM known as weapon system cue Colonel Hall changed the ICBMs name to Minuteman as a symbolic reminder of the country's military past and to reflect the quick response time of the missile system its ability to watch within minutes separated the Minuteman 1 missile from all previous ICBMs and paved the way for the future the Minuteman was designed to be an efficient reliable weapon system it was lighter and cheaper to manufacture than other systems additionally the new system could be mass-produced be operated and maintained by small crews and automatically monitored for condition and combat readiness by 1965 the Air Force had an operational force of 800 Minuteman missiles located across six states I'd basis the improvements in manufacturing didn't in there in fact commander of Air Force Systems Command general Bernhard Schriever had come up with a more efficient way of manufacturing high quality missiles through the idea of parallel development he issued contracts to multiple companies for each major missile to speed up the innovation process his idea of parallel development ensured multiple weapon systems were under research development and production at the same time general Schreiber is credited as the architect of the air force's ballistic missile and military space program 5 - the dynamic and real progress must be constantly pursued between 1969 and 1975 the Minuteman one system was replaced with modernized Minuteman 2 missiles the Minuteman 2 had improved propellant allowing for even longer range and survivability of the system during the replacement of the Minuteman with Minuteman two's the Air Force contracted Boeing for research and development of the next phase of the webbing system Minuteman 3 until the Minuteman 3 all previous ICBMs had one warhead that could only strike a single target plus the systems were hard to retarget Minuteman 3 had the ability to carry up to three warheads and it had rapid retargeting capability making it easy to switch targets this gave planners a lot of flexibility and saved time Minuteman 3 had a better guidance system than its predecessors known as the multiple independent delivery system this made it more accurate because of the ability to carry three warheads it had more than twice the blast radius and could strike targets up to 8,000 miles away by 1977 550 Minuteman 3s were launched ready and the number of operational Minuteman twos for reduced to 450 in the late 70s the Air Force requested a more accurate and larger ICBM by 1985 the air force developed an ICBM that carried ten warheads known as the peacekeeper the Peacekeeper or PK was very responsive and accurate but was a high maintenance ICBM it was later deactivated in 2005 leaving the Minuteman 3 as the u.s. as premier ICBM through the state-of-the-art improvements the Minuteman system continues to evolve to meet new challenges and assume new missions modernization programs have resulted in new versions of the missile expanded targeting options improved accuracy and survivability today's safe reliable and lethal Minuteman weapon system is the product of almost 60 years of continuous enhancement currently Air Force Global Strike Command oversees the nation's 400 combat ready ICBMs which are the top cover for conventional forces around the world they stand ready to deploy 24/7 65 you so right now there are 450 launch facilities in the United States each wing will have three squadrons each squadron will have five launch control centers in each control center should man ten missiles on a daily basis you walk into work and you know what the possibility is that what could happen but you hope for peace plan for war that's the way that you need to take it on every day when you're going into work the needs of the Air Force are pretty great as far as missiles go it's a it is the Tier one function that we we provide it allows everyone else the ability to operate because we do have that constant deterrence going on so everything is allowed to function because of our strong nuclear presence nuclear deterrence is the bedrock of our national sovereignty as long as we're in possession of these weapons and we are able to cause such irreparable damage to a potential adversary they will have to consider their choices carefully moving forward if someone was decide to attack the United States some of the equipment is very old but they have been refurbished quite a few times the fact that our weapon system was fielded in the late 1960s and ceased production in 1978 and is still operational is a testament to our maintainer zhh the fact that we keep revitalizing how these weapons are used and how how they're maintained those guys in the maintenance field are working so fast and they've got their stuff so wired tight it's really it's really something else to see it's it's pageantry with how much that they have rehearsed and how well of how efficiently they can work [Music] with the missile itself I mean it's about 60 feet high and you can see pictures of it but it doesn't really do it justice until you're standing next to it and it's really quite astounding the the power of these things and the destructive force of these things is is really really pretty impressive my wife has a great grasp of what I do I think she understands the gravity of the entire situation as far as what we do at this job if it was me personally I would know that things in the world the situation the environment of the world is so bad that we had no other alternative but to use these I know that what I'm doing is to protect my country to protect the people I love when Colonel Paul Tibbets was pilot in the Enola Gay mission there in brief before they departed actually consisted of mission planners telling them that the power of the weapons system that they're about to drop over Hiroshima could knock the earth off its axis so they went into that with a bit of an unknown when they were when they were prepared to carry that out which they did and can imagine that would be a would be a pretty intense experience but zero hesitation Nikita you when people here test launch they're very interested in seeing the missile take off they don't really think or consider the necessary infrastructure to get signals to that missile in the first place and so really everybody's just looking for the show right they're looking to see the missile take off and watch it go off and over the horizon for simulate electronic launch Minuteman we provide all that kind of backroom stuff that you'd be look that you wouldn't necessarily see day-to-day some is important because it underpins our nuclear deterrence and our ability to provide and include insurance for our people and for our allies missile ears are the eyes on the system we can validate the commands are sent and that they're received by the launch facilities and that they're executed properly our role is to also validate that when the LCS the ultimate launch command system is in the air and that they're transmitting their logic commands to the test LS that those transmissions are received and that they are in fact responding directly to those taxes with the nuclear deterrent aspect of it it gives our technicians a chance to actually see no kidding hey this equipment actually does work and that's the message that they can take back to their friends and family and tell them just hey you know yes we've had this missile system around for a while but we just don't use it when it launches you use it in your piece of the thing and this is just one key portion of it to show them that when we're ready to launch three Minuteman three robots you you

Channel: MilitaryNotes

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Keywords: MINUTEMAN III, MINUTEMAN ICBM, ICBM, INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILE, NUCLEAR COLD WAR, NUCLEAR BALLISTIC MISSILE, MUTUAL ASSURED DESTRUCTION, SOVIET UNION COLD WAR, MILITARYNOTES, MILITARY NOTES, USAF ICBM, Bernard Adolph Schriever

Id: ulW6aWgJt4k

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2017