For history buffs of Cold War and the Atomic Age.
Hi Friends,
While down in Tucson, AZ this week for business I happened upon the Titan Missle Museum about 25 miles south of Tucson. Of course I realize most of you go nowhere near this part of the country but I thought I'd share my experience.
I was actually quality testing an Audi TT after repair and drove down to Nogales on the AZ/Mexico border and headed north on highway 19 back to Tucson. I saw highway signs for the Titan Missle Museum on my way back to my hotel. I searched the net and found more info on the museum. I planned today to be a "personal day" and headed to Cold War history.
The museum contained a Silo with blast doors, security keys, a Titan 11 missle (minus the warhead) which was about 600 times the explosive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
There were only 54 Titan 2 missle silos in place in 3 states from 1962 to 1982 before Reagan began decomissioning them with talks with the Soviets. This is the only site that is open to the public and still has a missle in place. The rest were blown apart and filled with sand and concrete. The Soviet satellites monitored this decomissioning and destructions of sites via satelitte. I'm sure we'd done the same as the Treaty was agreed upon. Some of you know that Kennedy was involved in the Cuban Missle Crisis around 1960 and this led to the proliforation of missle silows with only 3 targets in the world. Those 3 targets are top secret and never disclosed to even the 4 crew members of the silo. Its still not know what those 3 targets were. Nobody knows.
Of course this only brings to light that Minuteman Missles have relocated to Northern US States that are, as you can imagine, much more effective.
One of the most fascinating things (as an engineer) not only was how the silo was built, with springs supporting rooms to eleviate the blast of a direct impact of a nuclear missle was the fuel delivery system. All it took, and I dont remember the combinations of the two fuels, was to open the butterfly valves that release the 2 fuels to the missle from to tankers above ground. As long as the fuel temperature was maintaind at 60 degrees F the fuel efficiency/quality would last "forever".
If the terrible decision to lauch a missle of course was ordered by the President (most likely), the secret codes to initiate only 2 28 volt batteries. The 2 keys needed to open the file cabinet that contained the code to obtain the launch information. 2 officers that had to be 7 feet apart so that 1 person couldnt reach far enough to switch both keys simultaneously. They had 5 seconds to simutaneously switch the keys then decode the power to feed the missle and open the butterly valve that mixed these to volatile fuels into the missle that ignited upon contact/mixture.
Once this happened the crew was clueless as to what happened next. They couldnt hear the opening of the silo cover. Only the launch of the missle in their highly dampend/floating/springed environment. They only knew that in 35 minutes a city would be destroyed by a nuclear weapon. They had no idea what that target was.
Thankfully, of course, none were ever launched. Peace by deterance at its best and a great example of cold war history.
Now there are Minuteman missles out there in Northern states that are as or more powerful then their ancestors. Less than 30 minutes away an entire could be destroyed.
This was a great lesson to learn and I thought I would share it. Not only that! On my plane flight to Tucson I sat with an Engineer that just came back from Israel. He works on the missle defense system in Israel. He didnt talk much but indicated to me through facial expression that Israel has had enough of Iran. I dont what to make of our conversation other than he "freaked me out".
I hope Iran behaves because after the education I got today this is not childs play.
Enjoy.
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幸運わんわん Luckydog or Yukiwanwan in Japanese 
Originally Posted by RaymondV
