 |
|
 |
Each dot in the maps above and below pinpoints the location of one Minuteman missile. Nukewatch spent three years -- 1985 through 1988 -- locating the landbased missile silos of the United States. Above are the 150 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles located in North Dakota.
The 200 ICBMs located in Montana
The 150 ICBMs located in the field covering the corners of Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado.
Missile Fields Still
Armed & Dangerous
By John LaForge
Reprinted from the Winter 2006 - 2007 Nukewatch Quarterly
The number of Minuteman missiles has been cut in half since 1988, when Nukewatch published Nuclear Heartland, our groundbreaking atlas of the missiles’ locations.
At the time, the Air Force was operating six giant missile fields: two in North Dakota, and one each in Missouri, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming/Colorado/Nebraska.
Three of these missile fields have now been decommissioned and eliminated: Missouri, South Dakota and Grand Forks, ND. Interestingly, these three areas were the most active with political and nonviolent direct action protesting nuclear weapons and the suicidal nuclear war policies that persist to this day.
In South Dakota, adjacent to the Ellsworth Air Force Base, horse rancher Marv Kammerer kept a permanent vigil against nuclear madness. Marv’s ranch was a hub of Black Hills anti-nuclear activism during the ‘80s. He placed a giant peace sign made of painted stones on his land at one end of the air force runway so the bomber pilots wouldn’t ever miss it.
In Missouri, the Silo Pruning Hooks plowshares action in 1984 brought attention to the first-strike Minuteman missiles, especially after four activists ¯ Carl and Paul Kabat, Helen Woodson and Larry Cloud Morgan ¯ received 8-to-12 years, the longest prison sentences for civil disobedience in U.S. history. Later, Nukewatch sponsored educational peace camps and participated in the Missouri Peace Planters actions that also resulted in serious prison sentences.
In Grand Forks, North Dakota, the Bemidji, Minnesota Friends for a Nonviolent World organized annual Martin Luther King birthday protests (beginning before it was a holiday), as well as Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day actions, and a 150-mile Walk for Peace from Bemidji to the Grand Forks Air Force base ¯ a walk conducted six years in a row.
In Wyoming, 50 giant MX missiles, with up to ten warheads on each rocket, have all been withdrawn from the western side of the field which is still maintained by the F.E. Warren Air Force Base “missileers.”
The missiles still in operation -- with a total of 500 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) still on “alert” status -- are at Minot, North Dakota; Great Falls, Montana; and at the shared border area of Wyoming/Colorado/Nebraska. (See maps above)
Of the 10,000 warheads still deployed and stored in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, 2,346, about 24 percent, are now on 14 Trident submarines. Eight Tridents are on the East Coast at Kings Bay, Georgia, and six are on the West Coast at Bangor, Washington.
The U.S. is alone in placing its nuclear weapons in other countries; between 400 and 480 U.S. warheads are deployed at U.S. bases in England, Holland, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Turkey.
Nuclear Weapons
Spring 2008
NATO and Russian Generals Talking Like Terrorists
Bush Wants Outer Space Free of Law, for Combat
By Karl Grossman
Current U.S. Nuclear Weapons Arsenal, 2007 (chart)
As Secret U.S. Expenditures Soar, U.S. Admiral Derides China's Secrecy
Spy Catches Spies Selling Secrets
Nuclear Weapons' Waste Shell Game
Uranium Weapons
Hot Reactor Fuel Again Found Dumped at Hanford
Uranium Fuel Site Residents Say No More
The Cold War Warmed Over
By Paul Vos Benkowski
Winter 2007-2008 Nukewatch Quarterly
Armed B-52 Overflight:
Accident or Interrupted Raid?
By Paul Vos Benkowski and John LaForge
Israel Bombs Suspected Syrian Reactor Building Site
By John LaForge
Bush Threatens World War III Over "Knowledge"
Would You Buy A Used Car From the Vice President?
Fall 2007 Nukewatch Quarterly
Lake Superior Barrel Dump Scandal -- Murky as Ever
Continued
Knoxville's Secret Spill
Submarine Accidents: Understated, Under-Reported, Undersea
Barrels Are Part of Vast Oceanic Misconduct
Disarm to Re-arm
"One of the Worst" Spills at Hanford
Iran Opens Nuclear Sites to UN Inspectors, India Refuses
India Flexes Nuclear Miscle, Flaunts Rogue Status
Two Democrats Take Nuclear Attack Threat Off the Table -- For a Minute
Summer 2007
Abandoned Missile Launch Site Named for the Gipper?
"Divine Strake" Sunk by Skeptics
by Paul Vos Benkowski
Second of Three WMD Here! Minuteman III Missile Disarmers Released
Spring 2007
Israel's Open (H-Bomb) Secret Confirmed
2030 Complex: Resuming the Arms Race
Nuclear Missile Testing Galore
Ballistic Missle Tests 2006 - Chart
Troubling Safety Concerns at Pantex Weapons Plant
by Paul Vos Benkowski
Winter 2006 - 07
Misssile Fields Still Armed & Dangerous
Disarmament "Clowns" Sent to Prison
Weapons of Mass Destruction Protected by Court System
Locations of U.S. nuclear weapons, 2006 - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists graphic
Nuclear Callousness Still Running STRATCOM
Experts, Putin Warn of Accidental Nuclear War
"Nuclear" Missile Modified for Non-Nuclear Attack on Iran Could Set Off Alarms in Russia
Fall 2006
President Bush Pushes for Global Nuclear Expansion
Weapons of Mass Destruction Discovered Here:
Hiroshima, Nagasaki and North Dakota
Summer 2006
U.S. and Russian Nuclear Plans Threaten New Arms Race
By Molly Mechtenberg-Berrigan
U.S. Threatens to Nuke Iran: Because Nuclear Threats are Inexcusable
By John LaForge
Iran: A Nuclear History
By Paul Vos Benkowski
Nothing Divine About It
Winter 2005 - 06
New Warheads Still Being Conjured
Poland Reveals Old Warsaw Pact Nuclear War Plan
Rumsfeld Rebuffs China's "No First Strike" Pledge
Fall 2005
Nuclear War Planners "Never understood, didn't care"
By Molly Mechtenberg-Berrigan
Hiroshima & Nagasaki Myths Unraveling
By John LaForge
Missile Fields of the U.S.
By John LaForge
Maps of Montana, North Dakota and the High Plains Missile Silo Fields
Trim Radioactive Pork, Save $2 Billion
"Unthinkablists" Still Planning Nuclear War
Summer 2005
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Commemorations:
Confronting 60 Years of Nuclear Myth-Making
2005 August 6 - 9
Days of Remembrance and Action
Spring 2005
U.S Nukes Deployed Across Europe
Pentagon Budget Requests for 2006
Department of Energy Budget Requests for FY ‘06
Redesigning the Bomb
Implausible North Korean Threat No Basis for BMD
U.S. & Japan Said To Have Used “Food As a Weapon”
Winter 2004 - 2005
‘Bunker Buster’ Blasted by Budget
Sham ‘Bunker-Buster’ Just Psy-Op Weapon
Trident’s Flexible Destructiveness
War is Bloody Good for Lockheed
Fall 2004, The Pathfinder
Sick Weapons, Sickened Workers
Water Flowing Underground: Groundwater Contamination
from Nuclear Bomb-Building
Door Opens for New U.S. Nuclear Weapons
Days of Infamy: August 6 & 9 Commemorated
Hiroshima Remembered: Breaking the Silence
New Nuclear Weapons Still Being Concocted
Trident: The Many War-Headed Monster
Israel Arms Subs with Nuclear Warheads
Current U.S. Nuclear Weapons Arsenal
Sellafield Nuclear Dream Dashed
Hypocrisy in Action - U.S. vs. N. Korea
DOE Seeks to Expand Plutonium Pit Production
The Second Nuclear Age
The Second Nuclear Age (cont.)
