A Few Questions about Missile Silos

I thought the door slides to the side that is a lot of power throwing a 120 ton door 100 feet away.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
I thought the door slides to the side that is a lot of power throwing a 120 ton door 100 feet away.

For maintinance there is a hydraulic ram that gently pushes the door out of the way.

But yes, the blast actuators are quite large. There are 4 cylinders with a large amount (my guess would be about 50 lbs) of explosives, operating a piston with a diameter of about 6 ft, yanking on two 2 in. diameter cables. You could say they exert a lot of force. So much that one side of the fence surround the launch facility is designed to break away when the door hits it (about 200 ft away).

Originally posted by Starwars50
For maintinance there is a hydraulic ram that gently pushes the door out of the way.

Does this take a lot of time, because if it takes over 20 minutes, using explosives to blow the door off doesn't seem like such a bad idea

[edit on 27/6/04 by Hyperen]

Originally posted by Hyperen

Originally posted by Starwars50
For maintinance there is a hydraulic ram that gently pushes the door out of the way.

Does this take a lot of time, because if it takes over 20 minutes, using explosives to blow the door off doesn't seem like such a bad idea

[edit on 27/6/04 by Hyperen]

Yeah, it takes 30 minutes or more.

Also, the explosive charges can easily remove a door encrusted with feet of snow or ice. Or with rails damaged by some nuns (do a google search for Minuteman plowshare) ....

Originally posted by WestPoint23
No they get loaded in the pics above showed that also its a waste of money if its a one time use only. and greenkoolaid what more security do you want there were troopers 5-6 humvees cars and the truck and a helicopter they are not going to fight a war they are going across America how much resistance will they face what do you want them to have Abrams tanks and F-15 flying over head that's overkill.


West Point
Out

[edit on 27-6-2004 by WestPoint23]

Nope, I never said I wanted anything more, just pointing out what I saw.

You folks bring back lots of memories talking about missile launches. I remember back in the 60's, I was stationed in Roswell-Walker AFB and we lost a few missile crews trailblazing with Atlas F missiles installed by GD.

The 579 SMS (Strategic Missile Squadron) lost some good people just by reacting to ORI's (Operational Readiness Inspections). The silos ringed the Air Base 20 to 30 miles out. In those days they had to liquid load the explosive liquid rocket fuel into the Atlas. We paid a huge price for tuition at the ICBM school for rocketry 101......

One of the Atlas sites formerly used to house the SMS crew went for $4000.00 at auction people had purchased for a home-Less 1 Atlas F- ICBM. I calculated that if a defcon 5 launch had taken place with all Atlas sites in the west about 14% (About 20 Missiles) would have succesfully launched. Then again, that was probably enough .


"Whiskey for my men and beer for my horses".

Originally posted by dynamoalf
You folks bring back lots of memories talking about missile launches. I remember back in the 60's, I was stationed in Roswell-Walker AFB and we lost a few missile crews trailblazing with Atlas F missiles installed by GD.

"Whiskey for my men and beer for my horses".

Now I know why everything is built by Boeing and Northrop these days...

Originally posted by minimi



I'll add one. How does the missile get in in the first place? is it loaded or constructed inside the silo?

I found a picture of a Titan II being loaded into a silo



[edit on 4/7/04 by Hyperen]

Originally posted by Hyperen
I found a picture of a Titan II being loaded into a silo

No that's only its warhead.
Whole rocket booster is first lowered to silo, warhead is put on top of it after that.

That shows in Nuclear 911 document.

Here's nice site:
triggur.org...