Visiting the Last Titan II Nuclear Missile Silo

hey everyone welcome to Sidetrack Adventures this is Steve today we're visiting a relic of the Cold War the last of its kind a place that's purpose was deterrence and mutually assured destruction we're in Green Valley Arizona and we're visiting the Titan Missile Museum I always try to stop at unique attractions and how often do you get to visit a place that was designed to help bring about the end of the world as we know it we are about 25 Mi south of Tucson Arizona at was once just one of 18 Titan 2 missile sites located in the area in its day the Titan 2 missile carried the largest nuclear warhead ever deployed on an ICBM by the United States originally there were 54 of these silos across the country but after the program was shut down in the 1980s this is the only one that is left we are going to take the tour today and go down into The Silo and command bunker which were designed to survive a near hit from an enemy nuclear attack this giant antenna next to the parking lot is a highfrequency disc gauge antenna something like this was not designed to survive a nearby nuclear detonation the bunker would have had underground antennas that could be deployed as needed to this is actually still operational and apparently if you're a ham radio operator the museum will let you use this antenna free of charge had we come here when the silo was in operation this gate would have been the first of several security checkpoints we'd go through the bunker would be manned on 24-hour shifts usually by two officers and two enlisted and the relief would reach this gate and call the bunker on this phone they then have 3 minutes to get to the next checkpoint which was the entrance to the bunker which is next to that Brown pole sticking up if they took longer than 3 minutes they weren't getting in and the people in the bunker were going to be staying there another day luckily we don't have to go through all that though we just paid ,650 to get in there's a small Museum here that has some background info here's a replica of the Warhead well let's hope it's a replica anyway a model of the Titan 2 missile here's one of the switchboards it's amazing to think that this was designed to launch a nuclear missile and now the technology in my watch is more advanced than this and of course we have a gift shop in here too Okay so we've gone outside and that is the entrance to the bunker right in front of us and if we look this way there are a few helicopters and trucks out here but that beige thing right in front of us now those are The Silo doors I'll try to explain things out here as best I can but please remember I'm not a rocket [Music] surgeon here's a closer look at The Silo doors they're permanently blocked so that they're only half open so that any passing satellites can see that this site is not [Music] operational this Silo was constructed in 1963 and deactivated in 1984 let's go take a look inside The Silo hopefully this works out well I know sometimes looking through glass with a camera isn't the best I don't think it's really coming across on camera just how deep this is let me try a different angle I guess for some perspective you could see my shadow way down there the Titan 2 missile had an explosive force of 9 megatons making it capable of devastating an area of about 900 squ mil its top speed was 16,000 MPH meaning it could hit a Target 6,000 M away in about 35 minutes that square panel missing from the Warhead that's to show that this missile can't be used the Titan 2 missiles weren't meant for a first strike they were meant to be retaliatory and only the president of the United States could order their launch the Soviet Union of course knew where all these missiles were at but there were 54 of them across the country the theory being that the Soviets could take some of them out but they weren't going to take all of them out they would pay a heavy price for any First Strike but it's about time for our tour where we should get to see this missile from inside The Silo I had mentioned earlier that the bunker would have underground antennas as well here's one of them right here if there was a nearby nuclear blast they could have popped these up afterwards and still been able to communicate with their command here's the entrance to the bunker we're on a tour with about 20 other people so I'll try to give as much info as I can but I'm going to try and not disturb everyone else on the tour with constant narration too we're in the access portal now this goes down about 35 ft to the bunker entrance here are the blast doors at the entrance to the bunker these are made of 3 tons of steel and the bunker is 3 ft of concrete this area outside the door would be destroyed in a nuclear blast but the area inside would survive as long as the blast is a mile or more away there are Springs all around to absorb any shock to the bunker be it an earthquake a nuclear blast or a missile launch you'd hardly feel anything in this bunker at all you can even see here how the floor isn't connected to the [Music] wall I'll put a map of the bunker on screen it's three floors with a command center being on the middle floor where we entered a Communication Center below us and the living quarters above us normally the tours don't go to the Communication Center or the living quarters but our tour guide said we'll get a chance to see the living quarters today and here's the command center there would have been two people in here 24 hours a day if they would have had to launch a missile the people here would have had no idea where that missile was going everything was kept in this safe which took both people on duty to unlock walk within a few minutes of getting the call this key would have been turned and the missile would have been launched to the you will pass and here's a look at where the crew would have slept here's their kitchen SL recck room I did ask how long the crew could have survived down here after a nuclear blast and I was told about 18 days here's their televis vision and buffer if you were ever in the military you were probably more than familiar with a buffer now we're going to head over to The Silo these are the suits the people handling the rocket fuel would have had to wear we're now in the cable way that leads to The Silo everything down here is this color green it's painted that way because apparently this color is supposed to be Calon just think what the Soviets would have done for this footage 50 years ago a lot of people think that these missiles were retired due to an arms reduction treaty but in reality they were just phased out as the military modernized I hope everyone is feeling really calm looking at all this seaf foam [Music] green [Music] and behind another blast door we have the Titan 2 missile silo we're only a few floors down this thing is like 10 stories [Music] deep please know smoking by the nuclear missile filled with rocket fuel Reas the Titan 2 missiles were created for Warfare but some of them were adapted to be used for NASA they even carried astronauts during the Gemini program I'm just glad these were never used for their intended purpose so that's our look inside the last known well as far as we know Titan 2 missile silo thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up consider subscribing and we'll see you next week

Channel: Sidetrack Adventures

Views: 571,285

Keywords: Titan Missile Museum, Titan II Missile, Abandoned ICBM Silo, ICBM Silo Arizona, Titan II Silo Arizona, Green Valley Arizona, Arizona attractions, Arizona museums, Tucson museums, Tucson attractions, titan ii, titan missile museum tour

Id: -i-h849-DeE

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2024