Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: dfkling@june.cs.washington.edu (Dean F. Kling)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Reliability of Ballistic Missiles
Summary: Other kinds of of Operational Silos
Message-ID: <6749@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 20 May 89 03:17:26 GMT
References: <6594@cbnews.ATT.COM> <6706@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
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From: dfkling@june.cs.washington.edu (Dean F. Kling)

In article <6706@cbnews.ATT.COM>, amdcad!amdcad.AMD.COM!cdr@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Carl Rigney) writes:
> 
> Note that the US has *never* fired a missile from an operational silo -
> they move them to a special test silo and (I believe) spend a month or
> two going over them very carefully before launch.

   You should note that this applies to land based ICBMs, although I 
don't know how close the silo at Vandenberg is to operational silos.
   The Navy has always had an ongoing program to do test launches of 
SLBMs using both East Coast and West Coast missile test ranges.  These
are carried out from the operational submarines, and in some cases
use production, operational missiles (obviously with nuclear warheads 
removed. )  The data collected is probably as close to actual wartime 
data as can be collected within the constraints of test ban treaties and
public safety.  


				Dean
 				dfkling@cs.washington.edu