Missile silo blasts into Cold War past

The blast took place in a remote wheat field in North Dakota on Wednesday

July 5, 2000
Web posted at: 3:08 p.m. EDT (1908 GMT)

In this story: Missiles still on alert 'ICBM plays a central role' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

PILLSBURY, North Dakota (CNN) -- A blast echoed across a remote North Dakota wheat field Wednesday and another remnant of the Cold War disintegrated into history.

U.S. Air Force demolitions experts blew up "M-6," the 44th of 150 Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile silos across the eastern plains of North Dakota being dismantled to comply with the most recent phase of the 1993 U.S.-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II).

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Another 300 silos already have been destroyed in Missouri and South Dakota.

The military on Wednesday cleared nearby roadways and warned onlookers of the impending blast, which took place in a field about 30 miles outside of Grand Forks. Munitions experts then pushed a small button on an orange box connected to 69 dynamite charges inside the silo, igniting a muted blast that took only seconds to destroy the structure.

Tech. Sgt. Steven Marback, a member of the demolitions team that once staffed the silo when it was operational, said he was ambivalent about Wednesday's work. "It's disheartening at times because they did maintain this facility for 16 years, but it's also a good thing," Marback said. "I don't think we've lost any of our protection."

Five hundred Minuteman III ICBMs and 50 Peacekeeper missiles remain on 24-hour alert, according to Air Force officials.

"There's no particular sadness because we support arms control agreements," said Col. Charles Carpenter with the Air Force Command. "This is a great day for the Air Force, the people of North Dakota and the nation to move forward in an arms control agreement."

At the height of the Cold War, missile silos like M-6 occupied some 15,000 square miles of U.S. land, an area roughly the size of New Jersey, Massachusetts and Washington D.C. combined.

The demolitions team Wednesday rigged the M-6 silo with 800 pounds of explosives aimed at imploding one of the country's most durable structures -- a two-story hole where a launch pad 92 feet below ground held a missile, since removed, protected by a 110-ton door. Air Force officers once were stationed in the silo with the codes and keys to launch a nuclear attack against Russia.

The implosion filled the hole with rubble and steel cable. Eventually the site will be covered with top soil and reconverted to farmland, some 30 years after it was appropriated for the nation's defense. Enough of the debris, however, must remain evident over the next 90 days to allow Russian satellites to detect the destruction.

Watching the blast was Col. Kimber McKenzie, who commands some of the remaining missiles deployed at Minot, North Dakota. "This may seem a thing of the past that we just saw here today, but in this new century the leadership of this nation has recommitted us to the deterrence mission and ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system) plays a central role in that mission," McKenzie said.

Under START II, the United States and Russia agreed to reduce their nuclear forces by 30 to 40 percent. The United States, for the most, is required to implode some silos and their support facilities.

For Russia, the treaty requirements include imploding silos and moving nuclear warheads from neighboring republics back to Russia.

CNN Chicago Bureau Chief Jeff Flock and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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START III at a Glance
START II Treaty Fact Sheet
START II Resources
Full text of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between United States and Russia
LGM-30 Minuteman III
Russian Ministry of Defense (text in Russian)
The Pentagon
Contractors destroy first Minuteman III missile silo
  • photo of explosion

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