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The 90th Strategic Missile Wing (SMW) was the fifth United States Air Force LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM wing to be created (the fourth with the LGM-30B Minuteman I). In October 1962, construction began over an 8,300-square-mile (21,000 km 2) area of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado to build 200 Minuteman ICBM launch silos. On 1 July 1963, the Air ...
In November 1962, the 455th Strategic Missile Wing was the fourth United States Air Force LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM wing, the third with the LGM-30B Minuteman I. In 1962 and 1963 150 missiles were deployed to silos controlled by three squadrons of 455th in North Dakota.
A fourth squadron, the 564th, a former SM-65D Atlas unit, stood up on 1 April 1966 with the LGM-30F Minuteman II. Beginning in 1967, all Minuteman I A and B models were replaced by the Minuteman II. The upgrade was completed by June 1969. In 1975, the 564th SMS switched from the Minuteman II to the LGM-30G Minuteman III model.
Subsequently, the Air Force removed the wing's 150 Minuteman II missiles from service. The wing and its three squadrons of ICBMs were inactivated on 28 July 1995. Under the START I treaty, the missiles were removed and the sites destroyed over the course of several years. The first silo was imploded on 8 December 1993 and the last on 15 ...
As with all sites in the 44th Strategic Missile Wing, both had seen limited modification since they were built in the 1960s. The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Boundary Modification Act (S. 459; 113th Congress) added about 29 acres (12 ha) of land to the park in 2013, tripling its size to include a visitor facility.
A Minuteman III missile in its silo. Minuteman III missiles are regularly tested with launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in order to validate the effectiveness, readiness, and accuracy of the weapon system, as well as to support the system's primary purpose, nuclear deterrence. [54]
According to the Torchlight Initiative, at least 268 troops who served at nuclear missile sites, ... at each of the country's three silo-launched Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile ...
Deployment of the Minuteman ICBM began in 1961 with the initiation of construction of 150 silos and associated launch control facilities. Activation of the 44th Strategic Missile Wing on 1 January 1962, marked the initiation of SAC's first LGM-30B Minuteman I wing (the 341st SMW was equipped with the Minuteman 1A). The assignment of the 66th ...