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Cory Kuehn
© «AAFM», January, 2024.
Our address: en@rvsn.info |
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Seventy years ago, the U. S. Air Force was in the early stages of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) development, as then Brigadier General (then Major General) Bernard Schriever and his Schoolhouse Gang at Western Development Division (WDD) were working with the nation’s defense contractors and major construction firms on a number of new ICBM systems. By the mid-1950s, the Air Force had selected three prime contractors, Convair (later General Dynamics) for the Atlas D, E and F series of ICBMs, the Martin Company (later Lockheed Martin) for Titan I and II systems and Boeing for Minuteman. There were an enormous number of support contractors developing reentry vehicles, silo lift systems, guidance systems, propulsion and much more for the new ICBMs. One of the largest construction projects in United States history began in locations all around our country.
The Air Force now is in the early stages of a program that has many similarities to the original ICBM deployment effort, as work begins on the replacement for Minuteman: the LGM-35 Sentinel ICBM. This time, the Sentinel Systems Directorate of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center is responsible for the program, and Northrup Grumman is the defense contractor primarily responsible for the effort. As the deployment progresses, a number of defense and construction contractors will be involved. In October 2022, those of us who attended the National Meeting in Salt Lake City were given unprecedented access to this new ICBM program, as we toured the new Northrop Grumman campus in Layton, UT. We saw a full scale mockup for the new missile, guidance system and reentry system, as well as early ideas for the main control center on each ICBM base, the basic idea of displays for missile crew members and ideas for training all specialties that will be involved with the new ICBM.
There is still limited information on some aspects of the Sentinel deployment program, but the Air Force provided us with several publicly available resources to aid us in this article. Over the next few paragraphs, we will compare the massive effort that took place from about 1955 to 1966 deploying more than 1,200 new ICBMs in 27 different locations, to the modernization of 450 ICBMs at three of these same bases.
Geographical Scope of the Two Programs
The Early ICBMs: Atlas D consisted of three missiles to a complex in above ground horizontal storage buildings called coffins. It was deployed at two locations, with two nine-missile squadrons at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base (AFB), WY, and a single squadron at Offutt AFB, NE. Atlas E, with the coffin built with the roof at ground level, was deployed in three missile squadrons, one missile per site, at Warren, Fairchild AFB, WA, and Forbes AFB, KS. The Atlas F was placed in vertical silos, with the missile raised above ground for launch, with twelve missiles at each of the six bases at Plattsburgh AFB, NY, Lincoln AFB, NE, Altus AFB, OK, Dyess AFB, TX, Schilling AFB, KS and Roswell AFB, NM. Training and test facilities were also constructed at Vandenberg AFB, CA, Patrick AFB, FL, and Sheppard AFB, TX. All of the bases that would become home to the new ICBMs were already Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber bases, except for the two bases that would host ICBM wings, Warren and Lowry. Both had long been Air Training Command (ATC) bases. Warren became a pure missile base, while Lowry hosted the Titan I wing that was activated there while still continuing as a major training location for the Air Force.
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Each of the sites involved a significant impact on the local communities, with temporary housing for workers established at most. For example, when I arrived at Mountain Home in February 1962, there were almost no rentals available for incoming military, with long waits for on base housing. Martin Company established a large trailer in the town that was there only through the end of construction. Many base personnel and contractors had to commute from the Boise area, then about an hour drive. The situation was typical of all the new ICBM construction sites.
The Atlas and Titan I deployment was only the beginning. The deployment of Titan II and Minuteman began well before the last Atlas and Titan missiles were operational, adding nine more missile units, this time all missile wings, and 29 more squadrons for the 1,054 new second generation ICBMs.
Sentinel: The new ICBM will require construction or modification of facilities and infrastructure for maintenance, training, storage, testing and support at Warren, Malmstrom AFB, MT, Minot AFB, ND, Hill AFB, UT, the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR), and Camp Guernsey, WY. Forty-five missile alert facilities (MAFs), including the underground facilities (launch control centers and launch control equipment buildings) will be demolished. A communication support building (CSB) would be constructed at 24 of the existing MAF locations, with a new underground launch center (LC) built at these 24 sites. The remaining 21 MAFs would be decommissioned and demolished. Construction of the CSBs and LCs would be confined to areas within the existing property boundaries. All 450 existing launch facilities in the missile fields will be rebuilt with new underground facilities.
Sentinel updates will involve 4,900 miles of existing utility corridors and easements and establish approximately 3,100 miles of new corridors. Sixty-two communication towers will be constructed with 18 at Warren, 31 at Malmstrom, and 13 at Minot, each occupying about 5 acres. Temporary workforce hubs for up to 2,500–3,000 employees will be established in the vicinity of Great Falls and Lewistown, MT, Kimball, NE, and Minot, ND. These hubs will be in use for 2-5 years.
Program Management
The Early ICBMs: In the 1950s, the Air Force was deep into the “Concurrency” concept, where new systems, both aircraft and missiles, were designed, developed, manufactured and deployed as rapidly as possible, with construction on bases and missile sites started well before design and development was complete. There were several people involved in this effort, including many contractors working with the primary contractor for each system to develop mechanical systems, guidance and reentry systems, communications, command and control systems and much more. For example, while Martin Company was the primary contractor for Titan I, American Machine and Foundry provided the silo elevator system, AVCO the reentry system, Bell Telephone for the ground guidance, Univac for the computers and Aerojet General for the propulsion.
The development, testing and deployment of all these new systems over a relatively short period involved a number of large organizations. Then Major General Schriever ’s Western Development Division, which later had several name changes including the Ballistic Systems Division (BSD) and the Ballistic Missile Organization (BMO), was the primary overseer for the projects, as part of Air Research and Development Command (ARDC), which became Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) in 1961, with General Schriever as commander. An ARDC/AFSC organization at each base, the Site Activation Task Force (SATAF), led by an Air Force Colonel, oversaw the program at each base. Early in the construction program, General Curtis E. LeMay, Commander in Chief (SAC), required each Colonel to report directly to him to keep him advised of progress at each base. When LeMay moved from SAC to become Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, these SATAF Colonels still reported to LeMay. We had a couple of these Colonels as early members of the Association of Air Force Missileers (AAFM) and they told some interesting stories of Gen LeMay’s close involvement with construction activities.
An equally large organization on each base was an office of the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps was responsible for all the “real property” construction, which included the silos, launch facilities, launch control facilities, as well as all base missile support buildings and all of the associated infrastructure. In 1960, the Corps activated the Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office (CEBMCO), which grew to over 3,000 people working on 22 locations in 17 states. The office was under the operational control of the Air Force through WDD/BSDB, until deactivated in 1967.
Sentinel: The Sentinel Systems Directorate of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center is managing the new program. The directorate is at Hill AFB, UT with operating locations at Warren, Malmstrom, Minot and Vandenberg SFB, CA. Unlike the concurrency approach in the 1960s, the Sentinel deployment will take place over several years, with one Minuteman missile removed each week once the construction phase begins. The program is scheduled to take place beginning in the next few months and ending in mid-2029.
The Construction Contractors
The Early ICBMs: Over the course of approximately 10 years, CEBMCO and its predecessor organizations built approximately 1,200 launch facilities, with separate contracts at each of the geographical locations. In some cases, an individual firm, Peter Kiewitt and Sons and Morrison-Knudsen won the contract. At some locations, local or regional firms formed partnerships to win the lucrative contracts. Some of the firms involved were Kaiser-Raymond-Macco-Puget Sound, George A. Fuller Company, Del E. Webb Corporation, Western Contracting Corporation and Malan Construction Company.
Sentinel: A single contractor, Bechtel Corporation, is scheduled to complete the construction of the new Sentinel facilities at each of the locations mentioned above. Each of the workforce hubs could have up to 3,500 workers at any one time, although the sequential schedule probably means the size of the force will vary at each base as the program proceeds.
Funding
The Early ICBMs: The authors of “To Defend and Deter” estimated a unit cost for Atlas ICBM silos at $3.6 million each, and a Minuteman silo at half a million each, which results in a total of about $1.3 billion in construction costs in 1962 dollars. Various sources estimate the cost of deployment of Atlas and Titan I ICBMs at about $1.5 to 3 billion dollars. Adding Titan II and Minuteman probably more than doubles the total cost for our final initial ICBM force of 1,054 Minuteman and Titan II missiles. However, not all the design, development and other costs are included in these numbers, since early ICBM development was spread over almost two decades. In 2023 dollars, the overall cost of these programs was probably between $15 and $30 billion for Atlas and Titan and another $10 to $20 billion for Minuteman and Titan II, bringing the total in today’s dollars to the $30-$50 billion range.
Sentinel: While the overall scope of these two programs are much different since only a single new system is now involved, many factors today make any new construction program much more complex. In the 1950s, there was no Environmental Protection Agency, no requirement for Environmental Impact Statements, no Occupational Safety and Health Administration and less resistance to new defense programs by many in government as well as the public. The total cost to deploy the Sentinel has been estimated at $96 billion.
The next few years will be an interesting time for Air Force Missileers, as the Sentinel program progresses. AAFM will keep you updated on this significant addition to the mission of nuclear deterrence.
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