Minuteman Missile Historic Resource Study

Minuteman II

Development and Design

Even as the Air Force began deploying Minuteman I missiles in 1962, research and development into the Minuteman II had already begun. The new Minuteman was created to improve on the missile guidance systems, payload capacity, and anti-missile defenses of the Minuteman I. Minuteman II facilities offered survivability more in line with the Kennedy administration's "controlled response" doctrine. The first test launch of Minuteman II occurred at Cape Canaveral in 1964 and the first operational launch occurred one year later. As part of the Force Modernization Program begun in 1966 to modernize the Air Force missiles, the Minuteman II ICBMs eventually replaced the entire fleet of Minuteman I ICBMs. In 1968, just three years after the first test launches, 350 Minuteman II ICBMs were in the ground. Between 1969 and 1975, the program replaced the Minuteman I with Minuteman II missiles, and upgraded LCFs and silos to accommodate the more sophisticated missile. [123]

Capabilities

The second generation of the Minuteman missile, Minuteman II, differed from its predecessor in several important ways. It was a larger missile designed to accommodate increased engine and warhead size, measuring 57.6 feet long and weighing seventy thousand pounds. As with its predecessor, Minuteman II was capable of reaching speeds in excess of fifteen thousand miles per hour. Minuteman II offered an improved second-stage engine manufactured by Aerojet-General, improved targeting system, extended range, electronic autopilot, all-inertial guidance system, and an Avco Mark IIC reentry body with a one- to two-megaton nuclear warhead. [124] These improvements allowed the Minuteman II to strike targets from a greater distance with greater precision. New anti-missile technology increased the chances of the missile avoiding an enemy's defenses and delivering its warhead. The missile gap had become a thing of the past by the mid-1960s, as American intelligence proved beyond doubt the superiority of American missiles over their Soviet counterparts. However, this fact did not keep the Air Force from continuing to improve its product. [125]

National Site Conversion

Much of the work for site selection had already been completed with Minuteman I. When Minuteman II was ready for deployment, the Air Force established priorities for replacement of the Minuteman I missiles, and the first Minuteman II was deployed at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, in August 1965. The first operational Minuteman II squadron, the 447^th Strategic Missile Squadron, went on alert at Grand Forks Air Force Base in 1966. Minuteman II ICBMs eventually went in the ground at another five SAC bases (Malmstrom Air Force Base, Ellsworth Air Force Base, Minot Air Force Base, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, and Whiteman Air Force Base). Malmstrom Air Force Base was also selected as the location for an additional Minuteman squadron, and LFs and LCFs were consequently constructed at this base. [126]

Minuteman III and the Next Generation

In July 1965, after the entire Minuteman I force was declared operational and prior to Minuteman II deployment, the Air Force contracted with Boeing for research and development for the next phase of Minuteman, Minuteman III. [127] Minuteman III represented a change in the United States' strategic planning, and consequently resulted in additional advancements in missile technology. Minuteman I was designed based on the theory of "massive retaliation" which required the missiles to launch at one time in retaliation to an attack. Minuteman II was designed based on the theory of "controlled response" which required some of the missile fleet to survive a nuclear attack. Minuteman III was designed under a theory of "flexible response" which required the missile to be able to fire independently and target multiple potential aggressors. [128] Like the earlier Minuteman missiles, Minuteman III underwent rapid development. Five hundred fifty Minuteman IIIs were in the ground by 1977 and Minuteman III sites were later located in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. Four hundred fifty Minuteman II and fifty-four Titan II ICBMs remained on alert at this time, after retirement of Atlas and Titan I. [129]

Capabilities

Minuteman III stands 59.8 feet long and weighs 76,000 pounds. The new generation of Minuteman employed an upgraded third-stage engine, post-boost navigation control of the reentry vehicle, and an MK12 reentry vehicle possessing three nuclear warheads that could be independently delivered to multiple targets. The upgraded engine and the greater navigation control enabled the weapon to reach multiple targets more quickly and accurately than the previous generations of Minuteman. Previous Minuteman missiles carried a single nuclear warhead and therefore could only strike a single target. [130]

Advancements in Missile Technology and the Cold War

Much of the research and development effort to improve missile technology in the later part of the twentieth century centered on increasing the sophistication of the Minuteman III system. Efforts to increase the accuracy of Minuteman reentry vehicles and to design these vehicles to be less detectable by radar were ongoing in the 1970s131] Today the Minuteman system is commonly thought of as part of a "triad" defense system involving land-based missiles, submarine-launched ICBMs (known as SLBMs) controlled by the Navy, and Air Force manned nuclear bombers. When analysts use the term triad, they refer to these three independently operated nuclear systems (land-, air-, and sea-based), reasoning that three such disparate systems would collectively prove less vulnerable to enemy attack than any solitary system might be. [132]

The purpose of America's nuclear program was, at its most basic, one of deterrence. With the ability to launch unprecedented destruction, American strategists reasoned that no foreign foe would dare strike at Western vital interests. Throughout the Cold War, none did. The superpowers fought bitter and brutal wars on the Cold War's periphery, through proxy states and powers. Korea, Vietnam, and Angola provided stark examples of Cold War geopolitics played out on a local stage, often with deadly results. Minuteman was never designed for such conflicts; it was instead a product built and deployed for one purpose: to deter a direct Soviet strike at Europe or at the United States itself. Its was a global mission.

Ultimately, the Cold War system that spawned Minuteman and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction through nuclear deterrents came to an end. The details of the Cold War's final chapters will be discussed in greater depth in later sections. For now, it is important to note that the Minuteman II system lasted through the end of the Cold War, but not long after. The international system experienced dramatic changes throughout the 1980s. Renewed American military spending following the pain of Vietnam, initiated by the Carter Administration but later taken to new heights by President Ronald Reagan, helped exacerbate East-West tensions following the period of relative dètente of the 1970s. Simultaneously, Communist leaders behind Europe's Iron Curtain faced a new spirit of change and reform. Such calls for reform were prompted in part by outside forces (such as Reagan's vitriolic anti-communist rhetoric, improved access to Western media including television broadcasts, and calls for change from prominent human-rights advocates such as Pope John Paul II), but found their greatest expression in domestic reform movements such as Poland's Solidarity. The tide of discontent, when coupled with a growing awareness of their country's inability to match American military spending (and technological advancement more broadly) prompted dramatic changes in the Soviet system by a group of political reformers led by Mikhail Gorbachev. As we shall see, Gorbachev prompted political, economic, and social reforms at home, and helped create a new atmosphere of East-West cooperation, in particular following Reagan's departure from office. The Cold War informally ended in 1989, when West and East Germans spontaneously gathered in Berlin to tear down the hated wall that had divided them for a half-century. It formally ended two years later, when a failed coup attempt in Moscow led ultimately to the dissolution of the Soviet empire in favor of a democratic regime headed by Russia's first post-Cold War president, Boris Yeltsin.

Whether the threat of nuclear annihilation had safeguarded superpower relations during the Cold War, keeping them from mutual assured destruction, can never be fully known or determined. What is clear is that deterrence worked, in the sense that the two sides never came to direct nuclear blows (though as we shall see, they came close), in no small part because of the fear of widespread nuclear war. Minuteman was one such deterrent....against global communism. As we shall see, it was a weapon that came to shape the American landscape, leaving a mark on the men and women who operated it.