90th Missile Wing LGM-30 Minuteman Missile Launch Sites

Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

This is a list of the LGM-30 Minuteman missile alert and launch facilities of the 90th Missile Wing, 20th Air Force, assigned to Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.

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 km²) area of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado to build 200 Minuteman ICBM launch silos. On 1 July 1963, the Air Force activated the 90th SMW. The following year, the four component strategic missile squadrons activated 200 Minuteman missiles.

In November 1972, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) initiated the Minuteman Integrated Improvement Program to harden silos and upgrade command data buffers, allowing for quicker missile retargeting. Warren AFB also received new missiles: the Minuteman I ICBMs at the base were replaced with the LGM-30G Minuteman III between 1973 and 1975.

In November 1982, in a decision statement for Congress, President Ronald Reagan stated his plan to deploy the MX missile (later designated the LGM-118 Peacekeeper) to superhardened silos located at Warren AFB. In July 1984, construction began on Peacekeeper support facilities there. From 1986 through 1988, 50 Peacekeeper missiles were backfitted into silos formerly occupied by Minuteman IIIs of the 400th Strategic Missile Squadron. The 400th achieved initial operational capability with ten deployed Peacekeepers in December 1986; full operational capability was achieved in December 1988 with 50 missiles.

All of the 90th Wing's Minuteman III missile loads were reduced from three warheads to a single warhead by the START I treaty between 1991 and 2001. Beginning in 2002, the Peacekeepers began to be inactivated for budgetary reasons, and by September 2005, the 400th SMS had been inactivated.

The three active Minuteman III squadrons are commanded by the 90th Operations Group.

90th Missile Wing LGM-30 Minuteman Missile Launch Sites

Facilities

Units and locations

319th Missile Squadron

320th Missile Squadron

321st Missile Squadron

400th Missile Squadron

References

Related Articles