We visited the Minuteman command and control centre in South Dakota. This is now a national monument, but was built by the US Government in the early 1960s, as part of its response to the Cuban missle crisis. The control centre commanded ten ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) which were Minutemen I missiles armed with 1.2 Mega tonne nuclear warheads. The support building is on the surface but we decended 10 metres into the ground to the shielded control centre. The control centre had two staff who did a 24 hour shift. The control centre was shielded against attack, with backup generators and air supplies. The two controllers could launch all ten missiles simultaneously with the turn of two keys. The missiles had no self-destruct and could not be turned back. The ten missiles were placed several kilometres away from the command centre. There were five command centres each controlling ten missiles in each “flight” in South Dakota.
The 8 tonne blast door protecting the underground control centre. The flight time of the Minuteman Missiles was 30 minutes to their targets in the Soviet Union.
Control panel of the commander showing the status of all ten missiles.
Two control seats. The seats are mounted on rails so their can absorb shock. The whole command centre is also suspended to absorb shock. Red box are the right contained the two command keys.
Delta-09, one of the ten missile silos controlled by the Delta control centre, which was about 10 km from the control centre.
Minuteman missile in Silo at Delta-09