How many nuclear missile silos did US have during cold war?

[localhost127]

Originally Posted by Grand Danois

IIRC US ICBM use GPS (but is not a primary means of nav) and also stellar navigation (very, very accurate).

The geometry of the original three Beidiou GEO sats perform poorly for navigation on the Earths surface, but is excellent if you use them for mid-course corrections when tossing an ICBM from China to CONUS. Odd isn't it? If the Chinese don't use the sats for this, they'd have to work with a CEP of several kms.

Thanks for the info. I'm having trouble locating more information online regarding stellar navigation in detail ... could anyone be of assistance and point me in the right direction?

[Grand Danois]

Originally Posted by localhost127

Thanks for the info. I'm having trouble locating more information online regarding stellar navigation in detail ... could anyone be of assistance and point me in the right direction?

There this tidbit:

Celestial Reference. A celestial navigation guidance system is a system designed for a predetermined path in which the missile course is adjusted continuously by reference to fixed stars. The system is based on the known apparent positions of stars or other celestial bodies with respect to a point on the surface of the earth at a given time. Navigation by fixed stars and the sun is highly desirable for long-range missiles since its accuracy is not dependent on range. The missile must be provided with a horizontal or a vertical reference to the earth, automatic star-tracking telescopes to determine star elevation angles with respect to the reference, a time base, and navigational star tables mechanically or electrically recorded. A computer in the missile continuously compares star observations with the time base and the navigational tables to determine the missile's present position. From this, the proper signals are computed to steer the missile correctly toward the target. The missile must carry all this complicated equipment and must fly above the clouds to assure star visibility. Celestial guidance (also called stellar guidance) was used for the Mariner (unmanned spacecraft) interplanetary mission to the vicinity of Mars and Venus. ICBM and SLBM systems at present use celestial guidance.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/missile/basics.htm

Try Googling combinations of stellar/celestial + guidance/reference/navigation and something is bound to pop up.

[t68]

Originally Posted by Dave H

Plus the 4 minute flight time from western russia to the UK must make things less flexible, they could be hit before they had the chance to fly, and that puts immense pressure on any risk of false alarm, I doubt any politician could consider the matter and make a rational decision in 4 minutes so the process would probably have to be automated or at least have devolved responsibility to a senior military commander with his/her finger permanently next to the button?

Holy crap,i did not realize it was such a short flight time.
you must have had some real cool cookie's under pressure if something went wrong or not what it seemed.

Could the UK realistically send the a response in under 4 minutes if it was under a surprise attack?

What is the flight time to CONUS?

[kato]

Originally Posted by t68

Could the UK realistically send the a response in under 4 minutes if it was under a surprise attack?

There's a definite reason why the European nuclear powers have their second-strike assets underwater...

(France's ASMPs aren't second-strike)

[stonesfan]

Indeed, the main advantage of a Sub based missile fleet is that its nigh on impossible to know where it is! Whilst our Trident (and any other SLBM fleet) is hideously expensive to maintain, I would say its the most effective form of nuclear detterent.

I believe when the WE177 free fall nuclear bombs were due to be restationed in the UK after no longer being deemed necassary in RAF Germany, they were quickly retired as the prospect of having nukes on our mainland were not politically a good move. Although there is also the thought that if there was any kind of East-West conflict brewing, then chances are the USA would have hoards of them on our shores?

I have always found the how many thousands of nukes does the USA or Russia/USSR own or owned all rather academic. Even our relatively small inventory of 200 odd 100kt Trident missiles would be enough to render Russia totally dysfunctional, even if it wouldnt have the 'total destruction' effect that they would have on us.

[localhost127]

Has the US (or any other country with ICBM/nuclear capabilities), ever tested an ICBM with a live warhead? ...or have all ICBM missile tests been with dummy warheads?

If so, does anyone have any idea on the range/trajectory that has been attempted/tested?

I see quite a bit of risk in testing a live ICBM (either testing the warhead, or the missile/platform itself) over one's own soil. Has this been done before?

[kato]

Live missile-warhead tests in the US:

"Frigate Bird", 1962: Polaris A1 SLBM, 600 kt W67 warhead, 1900 km distance
"Bluegill"/"Starfish"/"Kingfish"/"Checkmate"/"Tightrope", 1962: Thor IRBMs and Nike Hercules, high-altitude tests with 1.45 Mt W49 warheads, tons of failures with contamination
"Operation Argus", 1958 : Three high-altitude tests with rockets and 1.7 kt W17 warheads
"Operation Hardtack", 1958 : Two Redstone rockets with 3.75 MT warheads, high-altitude tests

All ICBM tests used inert or missing warheads.

[stonesfan]

Was the 'Genie' air to air nuclear warhead missile as carried by the Delta Dart ever detonated live?

[Wall83]

Actually in the beginning if the cold war the us had much more nuclear missiles then the Sovietunion. It wasnt until the mid 1970s that the reds passed the NATO forces in numbers of warheads and missiles. The SS-19 and SS-18 with its 6-10 warheads did make Nato forces shit in thier pants. Those missiles was the biggest reasen if the construction of the MX-missile.
Then in the 1980s the mobile topol missile (SS-25) made russias second strike capability much bigger.
In 1990 just before the collapse of the Sovietunion they could launch a total of 308 SS-18 with 10 warheads each, 300 SS-19 with 6 warheads, about 200 SS-25 with a single warhead and 92 SS-24 missiles with another 10 warheads each. Then add all the hundreds of SLBM that would be fired from the hidden SSBNs and you can gess how much the NATO forces would had sufferd if the reds would had stirked first.

[nevidimka]

Originally Posted by Wall83

Actually in the beginning if the cold war the us had much more nuclear missiles then the Sovietunion. It wasnt until the mid 1970s that the reds passed the NATO forces in numbers of warheads and missiles. The SS-19 and SS-18 with its 6-10 warheads did make Nato forces shit in thier pants. Those missiles was the biggest reasen if the construction of the MX-missile.
Then in the 1980s the mobile topol missile (SS-25) made russias second strike capability much bigger.
In 1990 just before the collapse of the Sovietunion they could launch a total of 308 SS-18 with 10 warheads each, 300 SS-19 with 6 warheads, about 200 SS-25 with a single warhead and 92 SS-24 missiles with another 10 warheads each. Then add all the hundreds of SLBM that would be fired from the hidden SSBNs and you can gess how much the NATO forces would had sufferd if the reds would had stirked first.

That is impressive. How many MX did US have in their inventory until the end of cold war?

[yasin_khan]

At the end of cold war there were more than 17000 nuclear missiles including ICBMs,SLBMs,SLCMs and ALCMs with USA and more than 13000 with USSR.
Total no of war heads in 1970s in USSR were 7686 and USA had 9625 but no true details ever given how much are deployed in silos.

[Wall83]

Originally Posted by nevidimka

That is impressive. How many MX did US have in their inventory until the end of cold war?

The US had a total of 50 MX-missiles deployed with ten 300kt warheads each.
The last missile was decommissioned on September 19, 2005.

[yasin_khan]

Originally Posted by Wall83

The US had a total of 50 MX-missiles deployed with ten 300kt warheads each.
The last missile was decommissioned on September 19, 2005.

I dont think so that USA have decommisioned all MX missiles.

[Wall83]

Originally Posted by yasin_khan

I dont think so that USA have decommisioned all MX missiles.

Yes they have. The last missile was remowed on September 19 2005 from the
Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming USA. Parts of the missiles was saved to possibly make use in future missiles. Also the missile silos was saved and will be maintained in a “caretaker” status.
George H. W. Bush wanted to extend the use of MX in a mobile form but that was cancalled in 1991.

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2005_10/OCT-MX
http://www.missilethreat.com/missile...ile_detail.asp

[nevidimka]

Is it possible the US is regretting decommissioning all of its MX ICBM's now that Russia is set to upgrade its existing SS 18's to serve into the future, and planning on building a new ICBM of Satan's class to replace it in the future?