Visiting Montana's Nukes -- but not by balloon
Central Montana's people have lived with hundreds of Minutemen missile silos planted in their backyards since the 1960s. The Sentinel anti-ballistic missile system plans to give them 400 new ones.
Montana’s permanent bumper crop of ICBMs doesn’t get much attention these post-Cold War days, thankfully.
But when that Chinese spy balloon came afloating across the state’s Big Sky in early February 2023 it was assumed that it was snooping on the hundreds of missile silos and command systems around Great Falls and Malmstrom Air Force Base.
If the Chinese intelligence services want to get a better look at our country’s aging but soon-to-be-replaced missile defense system, it might be easier for them to just drive around on the wide open ground of north central Montana, as my wife, daughter and I did in the summer of 2022.
Bill s — 3/24/2023
‘The nuclear missile next door’ was a very good piece of journalism from the Washington Post in April about central Montana and its old nukes, present nukes and future nukes.
Very well written, with plenty of photos of the vast emptiness of Fergus County in the center of the state, it tells what it’s like to live in the middle of hundreds of nuclear-armed Minutemen missile silos.
Now Time magazine — you remember it; it used to be one of the Kings of Print — has produced an even better article on our aging nuclear missile system. Written by W.J. Hennigan and photographed by Benjamin Rasmussen, it is a shocking piece of great journalism.
The duo was given great access to the Minutemen III silos of eastern Wyoming, which are similar to their deadly cousins in central Montana. The journalists followed a maintenance crew down into an active silo to repair deteriorating, rusting parts and fix half-century-old electronic equipment from the Stone Age of computers.
I don’t know what is more disturbing — the sorry state of our creaky missile system, the absurd cost of replacing it over the next few decades (let’s just guess a $1 trillion) or the fact we still need 400 nuclear bomb-tipped missiles to deter China et al. from nuking us.
The older piece in the Washington Post by Eli Saslow also contains some information about the Air Force's under-publicized Sentinel anti-ballistic missile program, which the Air Force proudly says “modernizes the ICBM leg of the Nation’s nuclear triad.”
Sentinel is ultimately going to cost the USA $260 billion and its job will be to defend against incoming nuclear-tipped ICBMs from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Canada, whatever.
Besides drilling 400-plus new silos with all the trimmings into forests and dry ranch land that includes far more cattle than humans, Sentinel will dramatically affect the economic and social life of central Montana around Lewistown and Great Falls for the next 30 years — as long as the idiots and assholes in charge of America don't blow us up before then.
I recently spent nearly three great weeks tooling around the area with my Montana-born wife Trudi and daughter Lucy.
Central Montanans made their peace with living with hundreds of nuclear tipped missiles in their neighborhood long ago — in the 1960s.
The few local Montanans I asked seemed to know nothing about the Sentinel modernization program (though their local government officials are starting to prepare for the impact of thousands of workers who’ll be arriving at some point in the mid 2020s).
Public hearings already are being held by the Defense Department, too -- as if anything or anyone could stop the plan after the Air Force ordered 642 new missiles from Northrup Grumman.
The old offensive Minutemen IIIs are going to be replaced or decommissioned or recycled or repurposed, I'm not sure, but you can easily visit a live silo.
In the deep woods of the Lewis & Clark National Forest, next to a conspicuously wide and smooth dusty gravel road, near the tiny town of Neihart on U.S. Route 89, we visited a venerable Minutemen III silo hiding under a flat, well-fenced but innocent square of property not much larger than the footprint of a McDonald's.
As the aged Minuteman crouched underground in its nuke-proof hole, ready to launch and only 30 minutes from Putin's dacha, we parked and walked up to the small "Use of deadly force authorized" warning sign.
We made cheap Cold War jokes, sneered about the wasted federal billions of the past and the future and made peace signs while we photographed each other standing as close to a nuke as civilians can get.
We assume of course that we were being photographed, watched and listened to the whole time and that a helicopter, drone or HumVee was parked nearby if we did anything aggressive, like paint a peace sign on the fence or throw rocks at the silo's unfriendly warning sign.
But this is America, land of the free. As far as I know no one followed us back home to the panhandle of WV, where the deep woods are much more peaceful.
Welcome to Sentinel
Some links to learn more about Sentinel — formerly known as GSBD, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent.
From the Air Force PR Department:
The Air Force determined the LGM-35A Sentinel would provide continuity in strategic deterrence and cost less than extending the life of the current ICBM fleet, comprised of the aging Minuteman III. Replacing the 1970s-era missile modernizes the ground-based leg of the nuclear triad and brings the Minuteman’s more than 50 years of service to a close.
“As the Air Force celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, the Minuteman III Weapon System has been and will continue to be integral to our Nation’s defense,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. “As we look ahead to the next 75 years, investing in nuclear modernization is as relevant as ever and we are committed to transitioning to the Sentinel, which will ensure our Nation is ready to provide strategic deterrence for tomorrow.”
And here’s what to expect in case you own a 12,000 acre cattle ranch in central Montana and the Air Force decides you need a silo to call your own.