Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Where are the ICBM's?
Message-ID: <1990Jul28.161227.2399@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 28 Jul 90 16:12:27 GMT
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>From: jimcat@hope.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
> This is a pretty straightforward inquiry: where are the U.S.'s
>ICBM silos loacted? I know there are some in Minot, ND, but I'd
>think that they wouldn't place all the missiles in relatively 
>close proximity to each other. So, does anyone know where the 
>rest of the launch sites are? 

The Minuteman silos are spread over, mostly, North Dakota and Montana,
as I recall.  Even within the fields, they are in "close proximity" only
in a very relative sense, with individual missiles miles apart.

The basic requirements were large areas of non-urban land (to spread the
missiles out and keep them away from population centers), well inland
to prevent pin-down attacks from submarines, and fairly far north to
make best use of the missiles' limited range.

The old Titan silos were in Arkansas.  The greater range of the Titans
relaxed the "north" requirement, and they were put as far "inside" the
US as possible.

I'm not sure where the MXes have ended up.

                                         Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                          henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry