MISSILE SILO SECRET PROJECT

# An ICBM launch facility (LF) is an underground vertical cylindrical container for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). They typically have the missile some distance under the surface, protected by a large "blast door" on top. They are usually connected, either physically or electrically to a launch control center. ICBM Launch facilities are synonymous with the term missile silo, used in common nomenclature.

# The silo has remained the primary basing system for land based missiles since that time. However, the increased accuracy of inertial guidance systems has since rendered them somewhat less protected than they were in the 1960s. The U.S. spent considerable effort in the 1970s and 1980s designing a replacement, but none of the complex systems were ever produced. China, the USSR and the U.S. all developed mobile ICBMs:

• DF-31 (CSS-9): a Chinese road mobile ICBM (China also two older mobile IRBMs)
• Mobile Protective Shelters (MPS) plan, in which 200 Peacekeeper missiles would be shuttled around between 4 600 soft shelters.
• Midgetman missile
• One version of Topol-M
• Launch Facility (LF) configuration varied by missile system. Titan II (deactivated) ICBMs were in a one launch control center (LCC) with one LF configuration (1 X 1). Titan missiles (both I and II) were located near their command and control operations personnel; access to the missile was through tunnels connecting the Launch Control Center and Launch Facility
• The LGM-30 series Minuteman I,II, III and Peacekeeper ICBM configurations are one LCC to that controls ten LFs (1 X 10). 5 of LCCs and their 50 associated LFs make up a Squadron. 3 of the Squadrons make up a Wing. Measures were taken such that if any one LCC was disabled, a separate LCC within the squadron would take control of its 10 ICBMs.
  # The LGM-30 LFs and LCCs would be separated by several miles, connected only electronically. This distance insures that a nuclear attack could only disable a very small number of ICBMs, leaving the rest capable of being launched immediately.