A liquid-fueled post-boost propulsion system maneuvered the missile prior to deployment of the reentry vehicles, while upgraded guidance system electronics enhanced computer memory and accuracy. Its liquid injection attitude control system with a fixed nozzle on an improved third stage motor increased the Minuteman's range and the Minuteman III reentry system could deploy penetration aids and up to three Mark 12 or Mark 12A multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles. The Minuteman III, using modernized Minuteman I and Minuteman II ground facilities, provided reentry vehicle and penetration aids deployment flexibility, increased payload, and improved survivability in a nuclear environment. Minuteman's maintenance concept capitalizes on high reliability and a "remove and replace" approach to achieve a near 100 percent alert rate.īy the time the last Minuteman IIs of the 564th SMS were placed on strategic alert in the spring of 1967, significant progress had been made on the development of an even more advanced ICBM. From the beginning, Minuteman missiles have provided a quick-reacting, inertially guided, highly survivable component to America's nuclear Triad. Both the missile and basing components incorporated significant advances beyond the relatively slow-reacting, liquid-fueled, remotely-controlled intercontinental ballistic missiles of the previous generation. Minuteman was a revolutionary concept and an extraordinary technical achievement. The Minuteman weapon system was conceived in the late 1950s and deployed in the early 1960s. Fully qualified airborne missile combat crews aboard airborne launch control center aircraft would execute the NCA orders. Should command capability be lost between the launch control center and remote missile launch facilities, specially-configured EC-135 airborne launch control center aircraft automatically assume command and control of the isolated missile or missiles. ![]() A variety of communication systems provide the National Command Authorities with highly reliable, virtually instantaneous direct contact with each launch crew. Launch crews, consisting of two officers, perform around-the-clock alert in the launch control center. The LGM-30 Minuteman missiles are dispersed in hardened silos to protect against attack and connected to an underground launch control center through a system of hardened cables. This concept is known as Multiple Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicles (MIRV). With this configuration, the RVs can be independently aimed at different targets within the missile's overall target area or "footprint". The mounting platform is also a "payload bus" and contains a restartable hypergolic rocket engine powered by hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. The shroud protects the RVs during the early phases of flight. The payload, the Mark 12 reentry system, consists of a payload mounting platform, penetration aids, three reentry vehicles (RVs) and an aerodynamic shroud. ![]() The third stage is larger and provides more thrust for a heavier payload. Operational since 1968, the model "G" differs from the "F" in the third stage and reentry system. ![]() Five hundred Minuteman III missiles are deployed at four bases in the north- central United States: Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, Malmstrom AFB, Montana, and F.
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