That’s No Train! Air Force Eyes Subway for Nuclear Missiles

Interesting, they have been talking about similar programs for years, that instead of fixed silos they would put them on trains continually running, or on trucks (the MX missile). I am surprised  that they even have fixed missile silos, I thought they had shut them all down, given the firepower nuclear subs have.

http://insidedefense.com/20130...ans/menu-id-926.html

 

... the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center last year outlined five potential alternatives to explore in an analysis of alternatives. These options, according to the January notice, include the continued use of the current Minuteman III baseline missile until 2075, with no attempt to close identified gaps; modest modernization approach that incorporates incremental changes to the current Minuteman III baseline to close the gaps; "new fixed" missiles; "new mobile" ICBMs; and a "new tunnel" option.

 

Of these approaches, the most bold -- and potentially most expensive -- would be the "new tunnel" concept. It would require a vast underground subway-like network of pathways to shuttle new missiles around to multiple launch portals, any of which of could be used to fire the missile. "The tunnel concept mode operates similar to a subway system but with only a single transporter/launcher and missile dedicated to a given tunnel," states the notice. "The tunnel is long enough to improve survivability but leaving enough room to permit adequate 'rattle space' in the event of an enemy attack."

 

Unmanned cars, either on rails or in "trackless" mode, would move along the tunnels and, in a doomsday scenario, use any one of the launch portals that would be built at "regular" intervals to allow the transporter to raised and fire the missile.

 

"Your Tax Dollars At Work". We've got subs, long-range bombers, cruise missiles, "suitcase nukes" (for those 'special' occassions) and certainly other things none of us have even heard of. Do we really need more toys for the politicians and generals to play with? I'm a Viet Nam vet, and if I've upset anybody with this, tough s***.

When is MTH going to announce the scale version in its catalogue?

 

(sorry, I could not resist)

 

bigkid is correct - various versions have been discussed for years.

given the current fiscal situation, I don't think this will get much of anywhere. i expect that the current minutemanIII's will be upgraded. it's the alternative that the military industrial complex has used since before WW1.

Excerpted from one of the old "Amscam" satirical newsletters that circulated around Amtrak during a period of labor unrest in the early 1990's:

 

"Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, in a recent press conference, said that the movement of MX missiles on Amtrak trains would give the United States a weapons system that would be virtually untraceable, since most Amtrak trains are never where they should be at any given time..."

 

---PCJ

I suspect these proposed studies of different deployment systems are actually a step towards significantly downsizing the nuclear arsenal. If fewer weapons are deployed in ways that are more difficult to track, it could be a more effective and less expensive way to maintain deterrence. Or the studies may end up as talking points for disarmament talks.

And after the world is decimated....  The next generation will wander through these tunnels and wonder...

So we had lots of debate on a different thread about 5 billion for a train to Las Vegas.  How about we completely scrap all of our land based and air carried nukes, and reduce to 5 or 6 ballistic subs.  still enough firepower to destroy the world.

Yeah, but think about all of those Apes (Planet of The Apes) roaming through all of those subway tunnels.  LOL.

... yet another argument for sequestration!

Between 1983 and 1986, I was the records manager for the Ballistic Missile Office which had acquisition responsibility for the ICBMs.  This concept is nothing more than a buried version of the "race track" basing mode which was cancelled in 1983 or 1984.  (I was supposed to spend only one year at BMO in California, then go to Nevada to support the "race track" basing mode's deployment.  That follow-on assignment didn't happen due to "race track" basing mode's cancellation.

 

This "subway" concept suffers from at least two fatal flaws, making it virtually stillborn before any research starts the first study.  (1)  It will require a huge amount of real estate, the same problem that fatally flawed the "race track" basing mode.  (2)  Destruction of the power supply will create the same operational effect as destroying the missiles or the subway.  If I was planning an attack on the "subway" basing mode, I'd kill the power supply locations.

 

If I was a betting man, I would expect the land-based ICBMs to be retired so as to free up money for the next generation bomber.  With the other two legs of the Triad  (B-52, B-1 and B-2 bombers as well as the Navy's ICBM submarines), the fixed location missiles are probably doomed by fiscal realities.  We'll see.

Really don't need those land based missiles anyway. Always felt they were just targets.

AND those silos are/were very expensive targets. they were designed to withstand a "direct" hit by a 20 megaton weapon-- direct meaning within a few hundred feet of a silo--

This is just wonderful....a nuclear missle subway and I can only catch one train out a Cincinnati three times a week in the middle of the night!  That's what I call progress! It's not that I'm upset I'm confussed.