I n October the R-7 launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. In a modified R-7 launched the first manned spacecraft, Vostok, which carried cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Refined versions of the R-7 are still in use today. A workhorse of the Soviet space program, the R-7 rocket has launched many missions. General Howell M. Estes, Jr. The Air Force wanted to deploy Minuteman as a single, immense, "missile farm," equipped with as many as 1, missiles. However, the Air Force soon determined that "for reasons of economy launchers should be concentrated in a single area, whenever possible, and that no area should contain fewer than 50 missiles.
Each squadron was further subdivided into five smaller units, called "flights. The silos were separated from the launch control facility and from each other by a distance of several miles. But when early models of Minuteman missiles fell short of their intended 5,mile range, the Air Force selected sites in the northern part of the United States, which was closer to the Soviet Union.
In the event of a nuclear accident or attack, the low population density near Malmstrom AFB would minimize civilian casualties. In addition, the region offered an established network of roads and, like much of the West, a large amount of easy-to-acquire public land. In the spring of , the Associated Press reported that the Montana silos were being "rushed to completion," and that the first missiles, each loaded with "one megaton of death and destruction," would be ready by late summer.
Air Force crews began lowering the weapons into the silos at the end of July, and Malmstrom AFB's first ten-missile flight was hurriedly activated on October 27, , at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Military strategists began planning for a second Minuteman installation shortly after work got underway at Malmstrom AFB.
In June , the Air Force was authorized to add another missiles to the Minuteman force. By early October, military strategists had narrowed their search for a new site to three locations in North and South Dakota.
The Air Corps used the airfield to train B bomber crews, and Ellsworth eventually served as home base for many of America's largest strategic bombers. The base was also headquarters for a Titan I missile squadron. Each squadron was further subdivided into five smaller units, called flights. A flight consisted of a single, manned, underground launch control center LCC , which was linked through a system of underground cables to ten, unmanned, launch facilities LF.
Each LF held one Minuteman missile stored in an underground silo. The silos were separated from the LCC and each other by a distance of several miles. Although the Defense Department had not yet officially authorized the South Dakota Minuteman installation, Senator Case wanted the land acquired immediately so there would be "no loss of valuable time" once the project was approved. Local ranchers did not share Case's sense of urgency. Fearing that the government might offer below-market prices for their land, the ranchers established the Missile Area Landowners' Association to negotiate fair prices.
The association assured fellow citizens that its actions would "not necessarily slow the national defense effort. By June , Boeing was busy improving the infrastructure. Anticipating that the project would bring in more than 3, workers, the company raced to build mobile home camps and cafeterias near Wall, Sturgis, Belle Fourche, and Union Center, as well as in Rapid City.
By early summer, more than three-quarters of the local landowners agreed to give the government access to their land. Once the sites were finalized, the Ralph M. Parsons Company, an architectural and engineering firm from Los Angeles, prepared plans for the Minuteman installation.
In July , four of the nation's largest construction firms submitted bids for the project. The festivities started with a bang. Despite extreme cold, high winds, and heavy snowfall, construction proceeded at a furious pace through the winter of In mid-December, the Corps of Engineers told reporters that "men are working seven days a week, three shifts a day on Minuteman construction.
Each takes from four to ten days. If this guy in Russia wants to start a show, we'll be there to put a hole in him to the best of our ability. By early summer of , the steel fabrication was finished at all South Dakota sites, and crews were completing the silos at the rate of one per day. On the last day of June, the first 20 silos were turned over to the Strategic Air Command. The work was completed nearly three weeks ahead of schedule. The Rapid City Journal described how a Minuteman silo was built: "Conventional earthmoving equipment scoops an open cut 12 feet deep.
A backhoe perclies on the edge of a large hole in this cut and digs a hole 20 feet deeper. Reinforced concrete is poured between the can and earth. By , all launchers were declared fully operational. The Air Force excavated lengthy trenches several miles long to install the underground cables that connected the underground launch control centers with the distant missile silos.
Delta One's underground launch control center LCC was constructed as two separate structural elements. The outside protective shell is 29 feet in diameter and 54 feet in length, and is made of reinforced concrete with four-foot-thick walls. Suspended inside the shell is the second element: a box-like acoustical enclosure that contains the launch control consoles, communications and monitoring equipment, and crew accommodations.
Delta One's "topside" structures include sleeping and eating facilities. By the end of , the Nation had 1, Minuteman missiles on alert in six separate deployment areas located throughout the north-central United States. Warren AFB in Wyoming.
In addition, another squadron was established at Malmstrom AFB. At each installation the Air Force continued to improve and refine the Minuteman operational system. Newly-elected President John F. Kennedy instigated one of the first significant improvements to the Minuteman weapon system. Soon after taking office in , Kennedy learned that even if he ordered a massive nuclear retaliation to a Soviet attack, a portion of the Soviet's long-range nuclear force would survive to strike again.
As a consequence, the Kennedy administration quickly abandoned the strategic policy of releasing America's entire nuclear arsenal in "one horrific spasm. The first ICBMs would target enemy bombers and missile sites.
McNamara hoped that the threat to the civilian population would persuade the Soviet Union to end the conflict. McNamara began retooling America's nuclear forces, including Minuteman, to reflect the new military strategy.
However, Colonel Edward Hall and his engineers designed Minuteman to be a fastreacting, mass-attack weapon. Upon receiving the launch command, the officers at each Minuteman facility had to fire all ten missiles under their control.
A selective launch of fewer than ten missiles was impossible. In order to conform with the new defense strategy, Air Force engineers had to redesign Minuteman's launch control complex. Historian Clyde Littlefield described the changes:. In order to conform to the new concept, engineering changes had to be made to allow a combat crew in a control center to switch targets and to fire one or more missiles selectively, conserving the remainder for later use Greater flexibility in targeting and firing required a significant extension to the limited survival time [of each operational site].
The [original] Minuteman facility design did not provide for the protection of the power supply At a control center, power generators were above the ground When and if these generators stopped functioning, the operational potential of the system would be reduced to only six hours.
Revised strategic concepts required that the weapon survive at least nine weeks after an initial enemy attack. To meet this requirement, the Air Force put the generators in underground capsules next to each launch control center. Although the Air Force considered incorporating these generators into the Minuteman facilities at Ellsworth AFB, construction was already underway there, making the changes impractical.
By the time planning began for the final Minuteman deployment area, the Air Force had developed a vastly improved version of the missile. Called Minuteman II, the new missile offered improved range, greater payload, more flexible targeting, and greater accuracy, leading one Air Force spokesperson to estimate that its "kill capacity" was eight times that of Minuteman I. Berry announced that the Ellsworth AFB facilities would also receive the new missile system. The following year, the Air Force began to develop an even more advanced version of the missile.
By late summer of , Minuteman III was ready for testing. Longer and more powerful than its predecessors, Minuteman III offered an improved guidance system that could be retargeted in minutes. But, according to the New York Times, the missile's "most telling advantage" lay in its "revolutionary new warhead: the MIRV, or multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle. Each launch tube was equipped with a new suspension system that could hold the missile absolutely motionless during the aftershocks of a nuclear attack.
The Air Force also installed a system of seals, filters, and surge arrestors designed to prevent electronic equipment from being damaged by the powerful electromagnetic waves generated during nuclear explosions.
This force structure remained intact for nearly two more decades. In later versions, the Air Force buried the life-support equipment underground to help it better withstand a nuclear attack. The Air Force also redesigned the launch facilities to improve survivability. The power supply unit shown to the right of each silo was buried deeper underground, and encapsulated in hardened concrete. The battle, which saw an early use of the deadly longbow by the English, is regarded as one of the most decisive in history.
On July During the four-day convention, The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is formally adopted into the U. Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. The amendment was the culmination of more than 70 years of struggle by woman suffragists. Its two sections read simply At the time, Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Lyndon B. His running mate would be Hubert H.
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