@@Holyinspirit lol..typical comment from someone with your name. Sorry reality, in the past or present, doesn't live up to your impossible Liberal ideals. 🤣
Just visited the national atomic testing museum in Nevada, they had a decommissioned m53 9 megaton thermonuclear bomb on display. Very unsettling to stand next to something 600 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Japan. Even just the casing of such a weapon is still terrifying. Everyone should visit these places to remember how close we stand to destroying our planet
Human kind only has the ability to kill its self.......... Earth will last for another 5 billion years.......... in its physical state. Mankind has no means to destroy the planet. all of you earthers are just a bunch of whiney little bitches who have no idea of what total destruction is....... please just shut the fuck up and let the ozone evaporate and destroy the planet........... thanks.
Part of what's impressive to me is the lengths the designers went to ensure two people had to agree to launch. There was a balance between the desire to make the threat of launch credible and the response time quick enough (deterrence), and the responsibility they felt to eliminate accidental or rogue launches (safety). I wonder to what lengths other nuclear nations go to achieve a similar balance.
@@bboyenzoIL I saw a video somewhere here on RUclips showing a Russian ICBM silo and from what I remember it seemed that only one person could initiate a launch. I may be wrong, but it certainly bothered me if that really is the case.
@@chrisb.1214 With the once active Dead Hand System of the Soviet Union and later Russia, there were warheads that needed NO person to launch. The system detecting an enemy launch or strike would be enough to launch retaliation. To think about that, and the hardware in the cold war times, gives me shivers
@@bboyenzoIL No. We all know from the TDS crowd on Twitter that Donald could have launched a worldwide global nuclear war at any time on a whim from his Mara-a-Lago estate if he lost a game of golf. He carried the Big Red Button everywhere. Biden has it now.
Answer push button launch missile checkmate game over... And this is not sarcasm of any video game has actually it's both video and real life procedures... The two keys the two buttons all pressed and turned the same time as the actress to ease the tensions of the on looking public... Banana real fail safe scenario of whatever damage your sub your ship your bunker has taken there are buttons all over the facility or the whole or the bowels of a submarine that any semen of the lowest class can find his button when the sub has taken torpedoes half the cruise dead instantly including the captain and all come to the outside world and you see the water pouring in and you're up to your neck in it and you're The last One alive on the sub and you're going to be dead with him a minute you push the button and launch what you have left that will launch and there will be plenty before the ship is totally destroyed..... And so is well known and obvious there's no time to wait for any orders all right secret come frequency that activates the copier on board the sub to give you a official document signed by the president to launch it's all too late for that in real life ... So as it stands today and probably always will for eternity the fleet of submarines hidden below the surface undetectable without any way of detecting or estimating where any one of them are at any given time and of course the Russians have exactly the same thing it's down to the wire have who wants to commit suicide first and launch cuz that's what will happen if any or either side for any reason as there's no logical reason when you're shooting into the dark and your opponent is shooting back in the dark as both opposing subs are running at random without reports of any orders as both have free will can you play it out at their own choosing two logically have a higher chance of finding the enemy first ... Like the movie Hunt for Red October is basically a training movie for a captain and crew to experience strategies.... Now take away all those safety precautions on firing off missiles and nukes... And it was during that era of the movie my parents went out to San Diego to visit one of my relations who was the seaman on such a nuke sub who explained there's buttons all over the ship there's no keys there's no waiting for orders if I want to fire off the next and destroy the world I can do it.... And a scary part was the explanation for my parents as mom said he had this crazy look in his eye of some kind of a macho movie star mad scientist knowing he has that power by merely a touch of a button......so this info should educate all your curiosities that's what goes on in the real world beyond Hollywood that's a way more terrifying don't you think.... All's well it ends well sleep tight don't let the bedbugs bite they may be radioactive........ Oops my bad it's easier than my thought nobody even has to push the button the artificial intelligent robots to do that for you just in case you're dead when it comes time to launch which could be any time in the very next second hahaha en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-deadly
I've written elsewhere on RUclips that my dad was a Titan II site commander at one of the Davis-Monthan sites back in 1964. He actually took me down inside the operational silo, where I got a personal tour of the crew quarters, the command center, and---the really BIG THING---to stand directly on the W-duct underneath the fully-armed missile in its silo, the two engines only fifteen feet above my head. I could look up the silo wall to view the small service porches at several levels, with Liquid Nitrogen venting from a port on the missile's side. I was a Chemical Engineering major back then, and let me tell you----it was waaay coool! l would love to go back.
@@JASONH01 Sorry, but I went in there with my dad. I remember him using an intercom at the outside entrance announcing he was bring me, his son, in. The massive blast door clicked, he entered the code to complete the security sequence, and in we walked. About 20 feet down the steps my dad punched in another code and we proceed to a lower level. There he opened another door to reveal a black cavity with humungous springs in xyz directions meant to dampen a nuclear blast. From there to the crew sleeping quarters /personal area and then to the control center with the two separated launch key mechanisms. Then down a corridor opening onto the W-duct pedestal under the missile. You are free not to believe me, but citing only your personal opnion that I am lying isn't "evidence" of anything. You might want to read puncheex2's story below. Have a nice day, skippy.
@@jelink22 Things were different back in the day, people don't understand that just because things wouldn't happen now they were pretty common back then.
When I was an AFROTC cadet at Vandenberg AFB in 1984, our flight's FTO was one Captain Brown, who was formerly a Titan launch officer. He had some stories. Some of us (at least me and another cadet from Bozeman MT, Jay Helming) were on Missile scholarships and were planning to be Minuteman crews. Growing up on a missile base, the thought of a nuclear war was never far from your mind. I wouldn't say we lived in fear, exactly, but we all knew what it would mean if we saw multiple vertical contrails rising out of the Montana landscape. We had faith in those days that our command authority (i.e., the President of the United States) would not order the use of nuclear weapons without a damn good reason. I am glad that that faith was never tested. For those who served, thank you.
The "Top to Bottom Tour" is absolutely amazing. This is a very limited tour that they only do only a few times a month and it goes into EVERY space in the silo. The 1 hour tour is ok, but this tour goes into every nook and cranny, including down into the very bottom of the blast deflectors. Because of its limited nature, you need to reserve in advance, but this is the best best best tour I have ever done in my life. You miss nothing. You see every inch.
@@stevenakn1 There were only a few people that did the Top to Bottom tour. The guy that led my tour had been at one time a crew commander in a Titan II Silo, so he had intimate detail of just about every aspect of the silo, the missle, and the various launch details. The standard tour does a simulated launch, but my guide gave a great deal more information about targeting, codes, maintenance, security, and pretty much anything else you could ever want to know. It was one of the very best military tours I have ever done in my life. They only did six people on the tour and I was there by myself so they paired me up with this History teacher and she was completely absorbed in every detail. I think she enjoyed the tour as much as I did. I cannot recommend this tour highly enough. No other museum of any other type put as much into the four hours I spend on this tour.
@@AJ-ui6ny More than likely they suspended the long tour due to covid. They have a lengthy section on their site about covid safety protocols. Hopefully they will get back to the old normal soon.
I was in elementary school in Seattle in the 60's during the Cuban missile crisis. We had drills in school where we would have to go in the basement of the wood frame school building and lie down in the hallways in the event of a nuclear attack by the Soviets (as if that would protect anyone). Every Wednesday at noon, they turned the air raid sirens on as a drill. I will never forget that sound or that time. Creeped me out. Even today, the sound of those sirens brings back those memories.
I only played many sirenhead games (horror monster that lives in the woods and has thoose air raid sirens replacing his head but they are looking like normal speakers, its pretty big, can do thoose siren sounds, can imitate any other noise that would come through a radio like a police call and more ), and thats enough for me to feel uncomfortable when they test the sirens every month. (they only test if they work, once a month on the first saturday at 12:30am.).And once, a few months ago, it was tuesday, at f*cking 11:13 pm, thoose air raid sirens randomly started and wooke me up, i was scared a.f. and woke my mother, ( she always wears that anti-sound things in her ears while sleeping) and exactly then the sirens stopped., my mom heard nothing. After half a hour, I calmed down and got sleep, it never got mentioned anywhere, and even my friends didnt heard anything. But I know it happend. I am living in a place with democracy and peace. (Germany)
You was in school and I was a bosun's mate on the USS Wasp off the coast of Cuba during the blockade. We watched the Russian cargo ships come out of Cuba. It was a close call, we was on alert.
Former Little Rock Titan MFT here. Your show brought back many memories & really got my heart racing. I can even remember the smells & noise of the complex. Thank you so much.
Retired USAF Comm technician with 8 of my 28 years spent during the Cold War and my last 5 at Vandenberg AFB, California in service of the Peacekeeper missile. Mostly familiar with the Minuteman III missile (currently in use), but my dad was a Security Police commander in charge of several locations with nuclear weapon capability.
No idea how I stumbled upon this video but glad I did - Incredible. Not only is the history fascinating, but important to preserve so it can be learned from. And that siren - gave me chills. I came of age in the 80s - one of these sirens was on my high school campus. Every last Friday of the month, at 11:00 AM, the sirens all over my home town (maybe even the state) would go off. I remember getting out of class and watching the siren go round and round.. and it was so damned loud. Back then we lived with the fear of nuclear war happening at any minute.. I feared hearing those sirens at any other time than the usual prescribed day and time.
As a kid in the 1960's, I remember hearing this siren. Now, as a 60-year-old watching this video and hearing the man play this siren again, was amazing. Until this moment, I had completely forgotten about this siren. I had forgotten how perilous the times were, way back when.
At the Great Planes they used enormous elevated all-around sirens driven by a V8 car engine at full throttle. They reached 30 miles wide or so to be able warn the population for an imminent Soviet attack.
Thank you for your service to display what was once our Nuclear deterrent site and to have ordinary citizens feel emotionally the strees of launching a nuclear exchange. Wow. Thank you.
Great news report. Just the thought of turning the key gave me chills. When my father was in the navy we were stationed twice at the POLARIS missile assembly facility near Charleston, South Carolina. It was always unnerving seeing missiles being moved by train to the ship yard
My first base that I was assigned when I enlisted in the Air Force was Vandenberg AFB in California. It was a missile test base, in other words they would pull them from various silos from around the country, take the warhead off and send them to VAFB so they could "do their thing" with them. It was interesting to see the launches, although you could usually hear and feel them even if you were nowhere near them.
Everytime Vandenberg AFB does a ballistic missile test, you can see it hundreds of miles away. It’s so cool. Last time I saw one was maybe 3 years ago.
@@herzeleid9525 it's really cool when they launch one about an hour after sunset, the sun that's over the horizon lights up the exhaust trail all the way to the ground when it's dark outside.
Good video. I was a Titan crew commander in Arkansas (308 SMW) for four years in the mid 70s. Brings back old memories. Everything in this video was just the way I remember it.
What's it like now, being older and having the time and ability to openly reflect on having the responsibility and power of ending the world in your hands? Does it ever bother you
@@fiendish67 I was curious about what happened so I watched this video *The Damascus Missile Explosion (Disaster Documentary)* ruclips.net/video/smQvR_VD7yw/видео.html Perfect example of how a simple decision of not wanting to waste some time to go back and get the approved tool end up causing A LOT more waste of equipment and a death in the end. Still could have been a lot worse.
My hometown in SW Michigan was and is home to three nuclear reactors. We grew up with them so we didn't pay much attention to potential problems. After Three Mile Island in 1979, the government put the sirens in to warn of a meltdown, tornadoes, and to a lesser extent, a nuclear attack. They would test them once a month (scheduled and announced). I think the sirens were creepier than the actual nuclear reactors.
The town I use to live in had the exact same siren as in the video, it was used for the fire station and tornado warnings. Every time there was a fire it would go off. It was freaky getting woke up by it going off in the middle of the night.
I have no idea how it was done, but in about 1963 I was a member of a Boy Scout Explorer Post outside of Denver, CO which was sponsored by the Martin-Marietta Corp., the manufacturer of the Titan missile (probably 724-B). Our leaders, who were engineers at Martin, got us a tour of one of the operational Titan missile silos in the old Lowry bombing range east of Denver. I later found out that they were in the stages of closing the site, but before they did, we got to tour it. The diesels were providing noisy power to the facility and it was crawling with uniformed Air Force people, no workmen in sight. We walked out to one of the silos and the sergeant who was guiding our group pointed up to the top of the missile we were viewing and told us that that was a live "hydrogen bomb" (he used that description) about 30 feet above our heads. I don't know whether he was pulling our legs, but I would presume that they wouldn't have installed a dummy in its place. It was a great tour, but I have to really wonder how they'd let a bunch of teenagers do that.
As an Air Force ROTC Cadet in High School in 1973 we toured the training version of the real deal in WY. It was definitely a very maturing experience for us. The idea that we were of the same generation that was still in the silos for a while made it real!🇺🇸
I was stationed at Little Rock AFB in 1985 through 1990. The Titans were in the process of being decommissioned at that time, but several were still active. Even though I was a C-130 troop, I'd helped out with the maintenance of one of the UH-1 helicopters that hauled the crews to the more remote sites. In appreciation, I got a ride on an incentive flight with a couple of other airmen and we "bounced" several of the sites. Impressive doors, and radio antennas. Don't know if it's true, but one of the missile maintenance guys who cross trained into avionics and came to our shop, SSgt Finley, told me if a bird landed on the HF transmitter antenna and they keyed the mic on the radio the bird would drop dead off of the antenna. It had THAT much power.
Definitely true. My dad was stationed at DMAFB in the late 70's to early 80's, then he transferred to LRAFB around '82. I remember years later, we were in Tucson and did a tour of that site. He told me stories about animals getting fried by the microwave antennas. The site is impressive...I was glad to have the perspective of someone that spent considerable time pulling alerts at those sites.
Thank you for this video. Great to have this museum and make people aware of the awesome responsibilities we had. I was Commander of the 373rd Strategic Missile Squadron (Titan) and can attest you got it right.
This guy is a TRUE teacher. He really went through everything showing off EVERYTHING in a professional manner of course. But had the police come when the sirens rang out HAHA. Whose teacher would of had the balls to do that for a demonstration in the USA!? XD
I took the tour at this museum several years ago. Very impressive stuff. The gyroscope for this missile is in the museum and is the size of a beach ball. Without that gyroscope, the missile would have a very difficult time flying to the target. It's an interesting look back at the technology of 50 years ago. In addition, some of the scenes in the Star Trek: First Contact movie were filmed in the silo in 1995.
Back then I believe the tour was given by the Air Force personal who were assigned to that site in the 1980's before it was shut down they all gotten lot older now I'm assuming retired from that.
Our company, and I myself, designed some of the electronics for the MGAC, and also for the MGC & IMU of the various Titan missiles. The Titan-2-3-34-4s were all used up, for Space & Satellite launcher programs. This was one of the most successful launchers ever made. It is too bad that there is not an MX Peacemaker museum, which was also a nuclear weapons system, similar to this one.
About the sirens. Here in France, the alert sirens are still in operation. Each number of tone is suppose to indicate the type of impending danger (fire, flooding, high winds, bombing..) and the fifth one (5 tones) is supposedly to indicate a nuclear attack (but this was never confirmed nor denied - so could be lore culture). However, you'll hear it throughout France at 12PM (actually twice, once at 12:00 and once at 12:05) every first Wednesday of the month to ensure they still operate properly.
Did the tour and recall the firing sequence. The keys release electrolyte solution into a battery, which when mixed and began an inexorable voltage rise. In other words a delay until and at which time the battery put out 24 volts, then liftoff. Also, that the Titan class of nuclear weapons were second generation, having been moved south from the Dakotas after the Sputnik launch once the military realized the Russian first strike capability could wipe out our response.
In 1956 after I graduated from HS and before the USAF, I worked for the company that produce those batteries. I was QA and did the destructive and environmental testing of the batteries. It was interesting work.
I have visited several Titan II Missile Silos in Arkansas, even the one that is mention in this video. The actual location of the silo that exploded was at South Side/Damascus , Arkansas. The Titan II missiles used a liquid fuel whereas the newer Minuteman Missiles use a solid fuel, and less chance to explode during any kind of maintenance procedure. The explosion caused the end of the Titan II missiles being used.
IN Cuban Missile Crisis, both JFK and Khruschev knew that the US had about 20-30 ICBMs ready to fire at a moment's notice, whereas the USSR had a handful of liquid-fuel rockets that took 24 hours to fuel and could not be un-fueled. Hence Khruschev had to blink when our Navy ordered the Soviet ships to stop. In an exchange, the US would be able to launch long before the Soviets.
@@nesbitstreet Actually, there was *more* than one reason why Khrushchev wanted those missiles out of Cuba. Castro wanted to launch the missiles that were already operational on to U.S. civilian population centers to forestall what he believed to be an imminent invasion by U.S. military forces on the island of Cuba.
Actually, the Titan silo accident that prompted the installation of the air raid horns at Titan silos, was in Damascus, Arkansas not Little Rock. In September of 1980, A large 8-pound socket from a wrench was dropped during maintenance and punctured the missile’s skin resulting in a fuel leak. Some hours later there was an explosion that actually blew the silo door off the silo and the nuclear warhead was ejected and landed next to the complex entry gate.
We heard this siren every day at Noon. If it's not oscillating from loud to quiet and back again, it's just a test. A straight blast is also the all clear siren. If it wavers, or "oscillates", that means get in a bomb shelter, because an attack may be imminent. They were originally air raid sirens for WWII. Since planes and missiles are still the way nuclear weapons are delivered, it's still a valid term.
I hear them ever so often here in illinois, they test them about once a month. Growing up I knew them as tornado sirens but they probably are the same thing. sounded the same too.
Crazy thing is that with the ability of the Russian navy to put subs off the coast, getting to a shelter nowadays wouldn't be possible. Launch to land would be just a few minutes, then BOOM. Probably the best answer would be , to be always ready for your final moments here on earth. Love God and your neighbor, and leave the rest to His hands. Just a thought.
Memories. I was a Titan-II BMAT (Balistic Missile Analysist Technician) from '62 to' '70. The last 5 years as a Launch Crew Member. BTW: We knew what our targets were. Every Air, Ground and Sea Launched Target was listed in the SIOP (Single Integrated Operations Plan). We had to access the SIOP to determine our available Launch Times under certain conditions.
@Felicity Grossman Both. What Capt. Bruce Cathie (q.v.) discovered is that the Earth's fields wouldn't support more than one nuke going off at a time. They had to be programmed for specific places at specific times, pertaining to the relative position of the Sun and Moon at the intended point of impact. After one went off, the atmosphere and magnetic fields would be so distorted in several ways that another one wouldn't detonate for at least a day or more. Big secret .mil didn't want anybody knowing about, since the idea of 'all-out' nuclear war (M.A.D.) was the deterrent. Talk about insane . . .
Amazing video. I hope we will NEVER see a day when nuclear weapons are used. My hat off to those who served in these silos, despite knowing the responsibility placed in their hands.
I'm originally from Scotland and I remember hearing the Air Raid sirens that would be tested periodically when I was at primary school around 1960. I believe there were air raid sirens at most schools in Glasgow that were originally installed in WWII to warn the population that there were Bombers heading our way and we should head to the Anderson bomb shelters for protection. I was only 5 years old when I first heard them and knew what was making all that noise. I'm not sure if the sirens are still there but many of the Anderson bomb shelters were demolished although there are a few still surviving today but would not survive a nuclear blast.
Incredible how these machines of war and destruction were later converted into machines of peaceful exploration. The Voyagers, Cassini-Huygens and many other interplanetary spacecraft were launched on rockets that were basically upgraded Titan missiles.
Probaly just like that war games movie one is ready to do his job the other won’t kill millions .. every one is different under pressure everyone is different period ..
I feel like a nuclear missile like this is kind of like a large tornado/volcano. Its a combination of being simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying. It has to be fascinating to see in person, and feel the immense magnitude of the responsibility the soldiers who worked here had and the gratitude that we've never had to use these weapons. Plus, it also puts in perspective that even today nuclear war is still a possibility and the idea of people casually throwing around terms like "ahh, just nuke em..." is not really something that should be casually thrown around. Very interesting report - and credit to the museum tour guy who was very knowledgable about this stuff and explaining the gravity of it.
Good video, I wish you had given the dimensions of the missile and showed how the missile crews lived underground and coped with the enormous responsibility they had to endure.
Scare me to turn the key/Was not or true.One of two guys had a gun ready to force the other guy to turn the key if the other guy dont turn the key/.Second the 2 would be locked in the room foreever if they had to turn the KEY.Takes guts to know you will destroy builting or things.But kill many on the other end.Scare me to death.I cant do it !!.Good educational video sir.
@@scottfailing7045 they both had guns, I recommend watching 1980's movie" war games", great scene about exactly this sinario u talk about in the opening part of movie!
Would have been manned 24/7 for 21 years. Would love to know what their actual usual workday was like without the overdramatised BS. I would imagine there were plenty of daily system checks and possibly a weekly firing drill, but other than that it would have been a very quiet uneventful job. So would love to know what they did to pass those quiet times.
We had one of these Titan II missile silos 1 mile from our house....we figured if it happen, we would not even know it...French fried into dust...in a mili-second. We were basically at ground zero in a Soviet attack.
My father owned an old Nike missile base in Austin. It was off of 812. I still have the original survey and letters from the city, when he was planning on converting it in to a homeless boys shelter. Keep in mind, this was in the 80's. This was just outside of Bergstrom AFB (before it became a public airport). I barely remember going there as a kid. I'm 40 now
I grew up not far from a ammunition plant(s) that made ammo for WWII so we had those same sirens in town. After WWII they continued using them for decades to warn of tornadoes so this siren sound is very familiar to me.
That siren is identical to those used in Michigan for tornado warning sirens. If you hear that, a tornado has been spotted in your area. Yes, it's kind of spooky.
I was a Minuteman II ICBM Combat Crew Member at Malmstrom AFB MT. Toward the end of my crew commitment we started getting a lot of ex Titan II crew members that were coming to the Minuteman weapons system to finish out their crew commitments. Many I knew had some really good "war stories" about that antiquated system. Look forward to visiting this site someday.
There was around 10 of us that came to Malmstrom. I went from 10 years pf Titan II PTS (Propellants) to (MMT) Minuteman II and III at Malmstrom. Retired in 1997 at Malstrom.
I was stationed active duty on those sites and can tell you there were no sirens like the one in the video. We had a claxon and a series of colored lights, but no air raid-type siren.
In Dayton, they have several decommissioned nuclear weapons on display, and it's, unsettling to say the least, to be standing next to something that could make 10 million people cease to exist.
Me,too.Those sirens have been around for many years.Some still in operation . Used for weather,nukes,, tornado watch Warnings.The mid west st one point in time ,was prepared.
It's not a nuclear weapon, it's a retired Titan II missile frame with empty Mk 6 RV. The W53 was the largest yield warhead deployed on US ICBM's, but not the highest yield US warhead. There were five other US nuclear weapons, deployed from the '50's to the mid '70's, with much higher yields. One had a yield of around 25 megatons- see "DOE Restricted Data Declassification Guide 8". The largest missile/warhead goes to the Soviet SS-18, deployed with a single RV, in the 20-25 megaton range.
I'm not sure about Russia have the largest missile /warhead....not at all. US will NEVER give away classified details on how big a missile /warhead they have. My guess is maybe Russia got more nuclear bombs than US, but that doesn't mean US is behind Russia. US got less nuclear bombs/missiles, but have much better technology and strategic skills. It's not about how much but how effective they are. Russia will lose if Putin press the button . China will lose and North Korea. US got much more nuclear airpower (warplanes) than any other country. And US nuclear submarines are superiour. North Korea will be gone in less than an hour. I do not hope to experience a nuclear war, It will be devastating, and destroy almost all population on Earth, and destroy nature for over hundreds of years (radiation and nuclear winter) . But if Putin is crazy enough......he WILL pay a very high price - and lose
When I lived in Las Vegas during the 60's and 70's we could see (and feel) the nuclear blasts. We would place a stack of quarters on the ground and watch the blast shock wave from 90 miles away knock them over!
Got back from a 12 day holiday in Arizona 10 days ago. There were many highlights of that trip - the people, the incredible vistas - and a visit to this museum. I volunteered as the Deputy Commander - and turned the launch-key to send the 9 Mt warhead on it's way.
For more than a decade the United States, stock piled 500, 24 megaton bombs, they were bomber only weapons to be carried by B-52s. The Titan was capable of carrying a more powerful warhead, but one was never fitted to them.
In the mid-1970s, I knew a fellow in a church choir in San Francisco who used to serve in a missile silo launch base. He said that stress on his conscience was such that he finally got to the point where he went to his commanders and told then unequivocally that, if he were ever given the order to launch, he would refuse. So he was relieved of duty. Even by the time I met him, he came across as very nervous and fearful.
If you drove down I-10 in Arizona on the stretch from east of Benson AZ to the west side of Tucson AZ then you drove by 6 old decommissioned silos. exit 292 Empirita rd is an empty exit in the middle of no where and all that is out there is a rancher, illegal immigrants, drug mules, and titan silo 571-4 it is my favorite one because I was paid to live on the land to guard the bunker from copper thieves. And I have been down in it before they buried it again to stop those thieves. And they where still trying to dig down the 30 ft by hand with a shovel just for the copper wire. lol. I DO NOT RECOMEND GOING DOWN IN ANY OF THEM. They are private property, and extremely dangerous due to the darkness, old conditions, holes in the floors that drop down to places with no way out, the hole dug to get in it can collapse and trap you with no way out and no way to call for help ever. They are cool but not worth the risk of injury, death, and asbestos causing mesothelioma. The pictures are better really.
Remember too that the Titan II missile was what launched our Gemini astronauts into space, lest you doubt the ability of the Titan II to get a payload into space, or into an enemy!
I was 24 when I checked out as a Deputy Missile Crew Commander at Davis Monthan in 1979. A year later, at 26, I was a Crew commander, in charge of my own crew. I actually pulled a few alert tours at that museum site but my home site was 571-5, up in Madera Canyon, a nature preserve, about 12 miles away. Many people say young people cannot shoulder responsibility. Most of us were still kids. The "old" guys were in their mid 30's. The enlisted crew members were often younger than the new officers. The military has a great way of screening and training to get the desired result. A year after I upgraded to crew commander, I was flying a supersonic T-38 trainer by myself out of Williams AFB. Young people can do amazing things with the right frame of mind, and excellent training.
As a crew member at Little Rock AFB in the 60's and 70's it's difficult to explain the emotional weight of the job. You had, in your hands, the power to totally destroy a city like Moscow with the turn of a key. That feeling never leaves you...
It was not Little Rock AR, it was Damascus AR in Falkner county, where the missile blew up in the silo. I was visiting the now defunct silo, after my spouse told me about the incident where the bomb landed a few hundred yards away in a chaps garden.
During 1966 I was in the Air Force stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB 390th SMS. While there i worked with a SGT Brewer we were both electricians and very close friends. I lost contact with him and would like information where he lives.
We have been like that since the age of the caveman and always will be unfortunately. Animals are much more respectful to each other, within the same species at least
This is a great tour. I visited the museum back in 1987. You get to see the entire facility, including the Control Center and living quarters for the USAF crews. Just like the immense cavern at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, where I've been on a tour of the inside, the architecture of the weapon delivery system and the facilities designed and built to support this deterrence is an amazing engineering feat.
During the Cold War in 1981 in Coventry UK, I was woken at 4am by the air raid siren. I was not around in WW2 to hear all of those sirens, but I knew what it was. Delivery time from the Soviet Union was 4 mimutes at the time. After ten minutes nothing happened so I knew it was a false alarm and went back to sleep. It was in the press the next day but I never found out what caused it. I haven't heard one since and do not want to
I know we are never going to actually call their bluff, but every time I see how complex not just the manufacturing, but also the MAINTENENCE, of a nuclear weapon is, it really makes me wonder just how many nukes Russia has and just how many could actually be used during a real nuclear war. And this is something that I wondered long before the Ukraine invasion...but now that we've seen the unimaginable incompetence of the Russians in Ukraine, it just makes me even more skeptical of Russian nuclear force. The most amazing thing may be how the Russians have managed to avoid nuking THEMSELVES in an accident up to this point. Seeing how beat the Russian ground forces' equipment is, just imagine what kind of shape their freaking NUKES are in?!?! The people in charge of the Russian ground forces have been skimming billions of dollars that were to be used for maintenance so you can GUARANTEE that the ones in charge of the nukes have done the same. I mean Russia can't even afford ONE functioning aircraft carrier. The one they DO have in "active" use quite literally cruises around WITH ITS OWN TUGBOAT because it is not a possibility...it is a GUARANTEE...that the ship will break down and need to be towed back to port on every single deployment it attempts. And we seriously believe that the Russians can afford to maintain an arsenal of THOUSANDS of nuclear weapons?!?! It's pretty terrifying when you think about it. Especially because a Russian nuke detonating in its own launch silo could easily be misconstrued as an American "first strike". Or if Russia's leader was a crazy, angry midget, it could be used as an unintentional...or maybe even INTENTIONAL..."false flag" nuclear attack as an excuse for Russia to launch nukes against NATO. Don't get me wrong...these aren't things that I worry about AT ALL. Not even right now. But it IS a little bit terrifying to sit down and think about it. Especially now that the entire world is aware of just how laughably pathetic and incompetent the Russian military really is. They are going to be a laughingstock on the international stage probably forever now. Not hard to imagine a crazy midget in Moscow wanting to STOP the laughter and ridicule by "proving" just how "dangerous" Russia really is with a nuclear strike. Although I suppose there is always a chance that they would try something like that to "prove their might" and the idiots would end up nuking THEMSELVES on accident. "Yuri! Dear Leader Vladimir has given the order to launch our nuclear ICBM! Launch the missile now!" Missile launches and instead of turning towards the US it flies a few thousand feet into the air and then the jet engines burn out and it falls right back down on Russia and vaporizes a quarter of the country. "Great success!"
Lol I was wondering the same thing too and you bring up some good points. If the US missiles are this old, relics of the cold war, I wonder what shape they're in right now. But yeah even if a Russian nuclear bomb failed (which it could), it would still spell trouble for the rest of us even if the bomb backfired. Firing at all is enough for a nuclear winter.
@@LunasEmpireSL I don’t think so. The Soyuz rocket is a very cramped rocket to transport humans in and the toilets aren’t very great. NASA only used Soyuz for cost savings because it was easier to buy a seat on a rocket already headed to the ISS vs hosting their own expensive launch using STS. SpaceX crew dragon reduces the cost per seat by 3x vs shuttle. So we’re probably using SpaceX going forward. Way better rocket than Soyuz.
@@aaronlowe3156 russia has invested alot in their rockets, look at the zircon. what people dont understand, ukraine isnt seeing russias entire military power, but yes russia is weaker than most people think ( minus the nuclear bombs)
Titan could carry a W-53 warhead (9 megaton) though highest yield US ever deployed was B-41 (carried by B 47 and B 52 bombers) Yield was the largest US deployed - 25 Megaton
If it’s ultimate purpose was ever used, US/Soviets had 19,000 nukes combined, you would have thanked humanity for gifting you mercy………… People never wonder why not one drop of blood is found at (not for the public domain)
@@ninjanutzforfun1105 it's no marvel, if it's inception is based on faulty logic. Aiming to destroy more effectively is not what i would consider evolution.
As a kid in the early 1960s it used to frighten me to hear those sirens when they tested them. Usually there were two distinct sounds you had to listen for, the sound of the siren and usually about the time the siren went off there would be this shrill blast coming from a nearby radio or Television that would last about a minute after which a warning would be announced (all of the time it would be" This is a test by the American Civil Defense broadcasting network, this is only a test"). Those words got burned into my mind because I'd heard them so much back then. Back then we were so close to Nuclear war (Nikita Khrushchev used to threaten us with nukes regularly) a finger slip and 30 minutes would kill millions of people. Today whether or not you are aware of it, a finger slip and 30 minutes and it seems Vladimir Putin is doing the same thing Nikita Khrushchev did back then with a twist. Khrushchev used to bang his shoe on the podium during a speech and directly threaten a Nuclear strike against the U.S. and even try to move mid ranged Nuclear Missiles into Cuba where as today Putin is claiming that a first strike with offensive nukes is actually a defensive measure and he too is claiming he'll put nukes in Cuba AND Venezuela. Putin is like a little Nikita Khrushchev. Frankly they kind of even look alike.
You are taught the wrong story. In fact, the U.S. was the first to deploy its nuclear missiles in Turkey. Cuba was a retaliatory measure in the framework of self-defense
@@krypton1886 We set up missile tracking stations in Turkey. YOUR government was the one who lied and told you it was missiles. Turkey would not let us deploy missiles on their territory. Мы установили станции слежения за ракетами в Турции. ВАШЕ правительство солгало и сказало вам, что это ракеты. Турция не позволила бы нам разместить ракеты на своей территории.
During the Cold War the Russians had missiles with 25 megaton warheads aimed at the U.S. That is 1,667 times more powerful than the bomb that fell on Hiroshima. ..... If a 500 kiloton, or 1/2 megaton warhead hit New York City the fireball alone would be the size of Manhattan Island.
Smaller warheads on Minuteman 3 and Trident are all that is needed due to much more accurate delivery. If you can deliver the weapon within 100 yards of the tareget instead of 1,000 yards, you do not need such a large warhead to destroy the target, plus you can get more smaller warheads into the one missile.
Fascinating and disturbing at the same time! I've been to the NTSHF National Atomic Testing Museum (NATM) in Las Vegas, the Los Alamos museum and Manhattan Project National Historical Park. One thing that still seems a mystery, I wonder what the "shelf life" is for a nuclear weapon? Does the fissile material get swapped out or re-enriched on a regular schedule? How do you "retire" a nuclear warhead? There is a lot of current news about apparent financial shenanigans within the Russian military, it's contractors, suppliers and super-wealthy oligarchs heading up Russian armaments companies. Given some of the reports of unsafe brittle un-maintained tires on APCs, out of date MREs, malfunctioning and never serviced equipment - yet apparently all these replacements and maintenance cycles have been paid for by the Russian government. Seems the funds to do this critical servicing are simply evaporating and the receiving military are simply signing off and presumably taking a cut! We have to wonder if the same skimming, corner-cutting and lack of integrity occurs within nuclear weapons programs in Russia's (or for that matter China and the US) infrastructures? Given these programs are also all shrouded in secrecy, how would we ever know?
For the fissile material itself, having a half-life of 24'000yrs (Plutonium) and 700 million years (uranium), it does not need to be re-enriched or need to get swapped. It's likely the other components would have to get replaced because of age or radiation damage. But most of the warheads, are not constantly armed. Fissile cores were usually inserted in the last moments before launch, except obviously for on-alert missiles. About "retire", most fissile material cores can be recycled and used in nuclear reactors, which has been done a lot in the last years. Also, it can be used to power space vehicles like probes or rovers. The danger of "cost" cutting can be a problem, but since nuclear warheads are very complex and delicate, it's much more likely that an actually launched missile would not detonate, than the chance that one just explodes. As mentioned above, most weapons do not have installed the actual fissile material before the final launch.
@@verruekterPhysiker Many thanks for the info. My dad was a submarine engineering commander in the Royal Navy and was later a naval overseer for the propulsion systems on many of the nuclear subs built up at Barrow in Furness so he often talked about the challenges with rapid metal degradation inside nuclear reactor cores . Stainless steel and nickel were predominant with the biggest concerns over welded components typically using a nickel-chromium-iron alloy rod. Seem to recall the radiation accelerated failure rate was referred to as stress corrosion cracking. I think the most amazing and disturbing experience I had was visiting the reactor compartment during "family days" at the naval base. I actually got to peek down at the glowing core (through a very thick gamma glass port).
I know the feeling. First i heard about nukes was a civil 'defence' leaflet. Where i grew up in London we was, err, screwed.The old ww2 siren at end of road used to let us know we were gon was tested once in 1980. Soviets invaded Afghanistan..shit. i'll never forget the fear i felt.
There is the same post Soviet museum in Ukraine. We were there before 24.02.2022 with my family we are from Russia. And there were a group of people from Lviv. We spoke different languages but understood each other. Everyone were proud that we are part of this history and understood the responsibility of having such weapons. The guide even said that he would not use the nukes in any case against Russia because alot of families in Ukraine and Russia have relatives on each side not speaking of how many civilians including kids would die. And nowadays ukrainian president and russian media workers allow themselves to throw words about nukes like its nothing. People definetely degrade
All the nuclear weapons now in arsenals (a fraction of what it was in the 1960's) could only destroy an area about 250 miles on a side. Hardly the "planet-killing scenario" envisioned by doomsayers.
@@billsmith9966 I dont think so. They "may" have some 2-5MT ICBMS still but 10 megaton warheads were deemed a waste in the 1970s and the two nations developed MIRV weapons with multiple 100kT+ warheads in one missile, capable of more widespread damage.
@@billsmith9966 Have a look at a photo of planet Earth from space missions and see how large it is. Now picture a nuclear explosion somewhere on that planet. Reality is, it will be just a pin-head in size. This idea that man can destroy the world with nukes is a bit far fetched.
I can't imagine what it would be like being a commander and you being ordered to fire the missile. The fate of millions at your fingertips, a once populated city gone in a matter of seconds.
We used to have a siren like that, or similar, in downtown Houston. It would always go off at exactly 12:00 Noon every Friday. People would set the clocks and watches by it. I still miss hearing it.
I'm actually a siren enthusiast or someone who shares the same interest, if you're interested in looking at my channel you can find plenty of videos of all kinds of sirens including those types called the "Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000" in the video also can be found on my channel so you can find documentations of them that I've filmed around the state of Michigan.
![Gucci Mane & Sexyy Red - You Don't Love Me [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/j7IBqyFKT4c/mqdefault.jpg)
You gotta love guys like this that keep these museums and displays alive.
@@Holyinspirit lol..typical comment from someone with your name. Sorry reality, in the past or present, doesn't live up to your impossible Liberal ideals. 🤣
Yes, remembering the past and telling it to new generations is something to be proud of.
@@Holyinspirit It's so good for passing down knowledge. Passive displays don't give you a story. Do you know what history even is?
Keep that in mind Russian bot
There's nothing to be proud of with showing off nuclear weapons capable of wiping out populations
Just visited the national atomic testing museum in Nevada, they had a decommissioned m53 9 megaton thermonuclear bomb on display. Very unsettling to stand next to something 600 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Japan. Even just the casing of such a weapon is still terrifying. Everyone should visit these places to remember how close we stand to destroying our planet
Human kind only has the ability to kill its self.......... Earth will last for another 5 billion years.......... in its physical state. Mankind has no means to destroy the planet. all of you earthers are just a bunch of whiney little bitches who have no idea of what total destruction is....... please just shut the fuck up and let the ozone evaporate and destroy the planet........... thanks.
@@MrCoors68 planet destroyers are not very far away my g
Even closer now with Looming war with Russia
@@NBWDOUGHBOY yeah never wanted this comment of mine to be relevant in the future, but welcome to ww3
I recommend atomic museum in Albuquerque
Part of what's impressive to me is the lengths the designers went to ensure two people had to agree to launch. There was a balance between the desire to make the threat of launch credible and the response time quick enough (deterrence), and the responsibility they felt to eliminate accidental or rogue launches (safety). I wonder to what lengths other nuclear nations go to achieve a similar balance.
Pretty sure 2 people are required everywhere in the world for launching nukes and stuff
@@bboyenzoIL I saw a video somewhere here on RUclips showing a Russian ICBM silo and from what I remember it seemed that only one person could initiate a launch. I may be wrong, but it certainly bothered me if that really is the case.
@@chrisb.1214 With the once active Dead Hand System of the Soviet Union and later Russia, there were warheads that needed NO person to launch. The system detecting an enemy launch or strike would be enough to launch retaliation. To think about that, and the hardware in the cold war times, gives me shivers
@@bboyenzoIL No. We all know from the TDS crowd on Twitter that Donald could have launched a worldwide global nuclear war at any time on a whim from his Mara-a-Lago estate if he lost a game of golf. He carried the Big Red Button everywhere. Biden has it now.
Answer push button launch missile checkmate game over... And this is not sarcasm of any video game has actually it's both video and real life procedures... The two keys the two buttons all pressed and turned the same time as the actress to ease the tensions of the on looking public... Banana real fail safe scenario of whatever damage your sub your ship your bunker has taken there are buttons all over the facility or the whole or the bowels of a submarine that any semen of the lowest class can find his button when the sub has taken torpedoes half the cruise dead instantly including the captain and all come to the outside world and you see the water pouring in and you're up to your neck in it and you're The last One alive on the sub and you're going to be dead with him a minute you push the button and launch what you have left that will launch and there will be plenty before the ship is totally destroyed..... And so is well known and obvious there's no time to wait for any orders all right secret come frequency that activates the copier on board the sub to give you a official document signed by the president to launch it's all too late for that in real life ... So as it stands today and probably always will for eternity the fleet of submarines hidden below the surface undetectable without any way of detecting or estimating where any one of them are at any given time and of course the Russians have exactly the same thing it's down to the wire have who wants to commit suicide first and launch cuz that's what will happen if any or either side for any reason as there's no logical reason when you're shooting into the dark and your opponent is shooting back in the dark as both opposing subs are running at random without reports of any orders as both have free will can you play it out at their own choosing two logically have a higher chance of finding the enemy first ... Like the movie Hunt for Red October is basically a training movie for a captain and crew to experience strategies.... Now take away all those safety precautions on firing off missiles and nukes... And it was during that era of the movie my parents went out to San Diego to visit one of my relations who was the seaman on such a nuke sub who explained there's buttons all over the ship there's no keys there's no waiting for orders if I want to fire off the next and destroy the world I can do it.... And a scary part was the explanation for my parents as mom said he had this crazy look in his eye of some kind of a macho movie star mad scientist knowing he has that power by merely a touch of a button......so this info should educate all your curiosities that's what goes on in the real world beyond Hollywood that's a way more terrifying don't you think.... All's well it ends well sleep tight don't let the bedbugs bite they may be radioactive........ Oops my bad it's easier than my thought nobody even has to push the button the artificial intelligent robots to do that for you just in case you're dead when it comes time to launch which could be any time in the very next second hahaha
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-deadly
I've written elsewhere on RUclips that my dad was a Titan II site commander at one of the Davis-Monthan sites back in 1964. He actually took me down inside the operational silo, where I got a personal tour of the crew quarters, the command center, and---the really BIG THING---to stand directly on the W-duct underneath the fully-armed missile in its silo, the two engines only fifteen feet above my head. I could look up the silo wall to view the small service porches at several levels, with Liquid Nitrogen venting from a port on the missile's side. I was a Chemical Engineering major back then, and let me tell you----it was waaay coool! l would love to go back.
Wow
@@JASONH01 Sorry, but I went in there with my dad. I remember him using an intercom at the outside entrance announcing he was bring me, his son, in. The massive blast door clicked, he entered the code to complete the security sequence, and in we walked. About 20 feet down the steps my dad punched in another code and we proceed to a lower level. There he opened another door to reveal a black cavity with humungous springs in xyz directions meant to dampen a nuclear blast. From there to the crew sleeping quarters /personal area and then to the control center with the two separated launch key mechanisms. Then down a corridor opening onto the W-duct pedestal under the missile. You are free not to believe me, but citing only your personal opnion that I am lying isn't "evidence" of anything. You might want to read puncheex2's story below. Have a nice day, skippy.
@@jelink22 Things were different back in the day, people don't understand that just because things wouldn't happen now they were pretty common back then.
When I was an AFROTC cadet at Vandenberg AFB in 1984, our flight's FTO was one Captain Brown, who was formerly a Titan launch officer. He had some stories. Some of us (at least me and another cadet from Bozeman MT, Jay Helming) were on Missile scholarships and were planning to be Minuteman crews.
Growing up on a missile base, the thought of a nuclear war was never far from your mind. I wouldn't say we lived in fear, exactly, but we all knew what it would mean if we saw multiple vertical contrails rising out of the Montana landscape. We had faith in those days that our command authority (i.e., the President of the United States) would not order the use of nuclear weapons without a damn good reason. I am glad that that faith was never tested.
For those who served, thank you.
The "Top to Bottom Tour" is absolutely amazing. This is a very limited tour that they only do only a few times a month and it goes into EVERY space in the silo. The 1 hour tour is ok, but this tour goes into every nook and cranny, including down into the very bottom of the blast deflectors. Because of its limited nature, you need to reserve in advance, but this is the best best best tour I have ever done in my life. You miss nothing. You see every inch.
Is it the same guy giving the tour he seems pretty cool.
@@stevenakn1 There were only a few people that did the Top to Bottom tour. The guy that led my tour had been at one time a crew commander in a Titan II Silo, so he had intimate detail of just about every aspect of the silo, the missle, and the various launch details. The standard tour does a simulated launch, but my guide gave a great deal more information about targeting, codes, maintenance, security, and pretty much anything else you could ever want to know. It was one of the very best military tours I have ever done in my life. They only did six people on the tour and I was there by myself so they paired me up with this History teacher and she was completely absorbed in every detail. I think she enjoyed the tour as much as I did. I cannot recommend this tour highly enough. No other museum of any other type put as much into the four hours I spend on this tour.
I just looked online and only see an option for a 45 minute tour. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong site?
On putins head in Moscow
@@AJ-ui6ny More than likely they suspended the long tour due to covid. They have a lengthy section on their site about covid safety protocols. Hopefully they will get back to the old normal soon.
I was in elementary school in Seattle in the 60's during the Cuban missile crisis. We had drills in school where we would have to go in the basement of the wood frame school building and lie down in the hallways in the event of a nuclear attack by the Soviets (as if that would protect anyone). Every Wednesday at noon, they turned the air raid sirens on as a drill. I will never forget that sound or that time. Creeped me out. Even today, the sound of those sirens brings back those memories.
I can relate sir!
I only played many sirenhead games (horror monster that lives in the woods and has thoose air raid sirens replacing his head but they are looking like normal speakers, its pretty big, can do thoose siren sounds, can imitate any other noise that would come through a radio like a police call and more ), and thats enough for me to feel uncomfortable when they test the sirens every month. (they only test if they work, once a month on the first saturday at 12:30am.).And once, a few months ago, it was tuesday, at f*cking 11:13 pm, thoose air raid sirens randomly started and wooke me up, i was scared a.f. and woke my mother, ( she always wears that anti-sound things in her ears while sleeping) and exactly then the sirens stopped., my mom heard nothing. After half a hour, I calmed down and got sleep, it never got mentioned anywhere, and even my friends didnt heard anything. But I know it happend.
I am living in a place with democracy and peace. (Germany)
@@sasori6417 I believe you sir 💯
You was in school and I was a bosun's mate on the USS Wasp off the coast of Cuba during the blockade. We watched the Russian cargo ships come out of Cuba. It was a close call, we was on alert.
Check out the old minutemen missile sites on cougar mountain in Bellevue.
Former Little Rock Titan MFT here. Your show brought back many memories & really got my heart racing. I can even remember the smells & noise of the complex. Thank you so much.
Retired USAF Comm technician with 8 of my 28 years spent during the Cold War and my last 5 at Vandenberg AFB, California in service of the Peacekeeper missile. Mostly familiar with the Minuteman III missile (currently in use), but my dad was a Security Police commander in charge of several locations with nuclear weapon capability.
No idea how I stumbled upon this video but glad I did - Incredible. Not only is the history fascinating, but important to preserve so it can be learned from. And that siren - gave me chills. I came of age in the 80s - one of these sirens was on my high school campus. Every last Friday of the month, at 11:00 AM, the sirens all over my home town (maybe even the state) would go off. I remember getting out of class and watching the siren go round and round.. and it was so damned loud. Back then we lived with the fear of nuclear war happening at any minute.. I feared hearing those sirens at any other time than the usual prescribed day and time.
As a kid in the 1960's, I remember hearing this siren. Now, as a 60-year-old watching this video and hearing the man play this siren again, was amazing. Until this moment, I had completely forgotten about this siren. I had forgotten how perilous the times were, way back when.
In the 60s you guys were also under the threat of being nuked by the Soviet Union if you're in America.
It's only an illusion these times are not as perilous. We are always one mad man away from turning those keys. Today that mad man is Putin.
At the Great Planes they used enormous elevated all-around sirens driven by a V8 car engine at full throttle. They reached 30 miles wide or so to be able warn the population for an imminent Soviet attack.
Beautiful, thanks for sharing.
@@paulvarn4712 Of course, of course, it's Putin
Thank you for your service to display what was once our Nuclear deterrent site and to have ordinary citizens feel emotionally the strees of launching a nuclear exchange. Wow. Thank you.
i could listen to this guy for hours, the way he explain all this makes it even more interesting
Great news report. Just the thought of turning the key gave me chills. When my father was in the navy we were stationed twice at the POLARIS missile assembly facility near Charleston, South Carolina. It was always unnerving seeing missiles being moved by train to the ship yard
My first base that I was assigned when I enlisted in the Air Force was Vandenberg AFB in California. It was a missile test base, in other words they would pull them from various silos from around the country, take the warhead off and send them to VAFB so they could "do their thing" with them. It was interesting to see the launches, although you could usually hear and feel them even if you were nowhere near them.
Everytime Vandenberg AFB does a ballistic missile test, you can see it hundreds of miles away. It’s so cool. Last time I saw one was maybe 3 years ago.
@@herzeleid9525 it's really cool when they launch one about an hour after sunset, the sun that's over the horizon lights up the exhaust trail all the way to the ground when it's dark outside.
Good video. I was a Titan crew commander in Arkansas (308 SMW) for four years in the mid 70s. Brings back old memories. Everything in this video was just the way I remember it.
That's a hell of a thing you did, Rob. Thank you for your part in keeping us safe through some of those cold war years.
Respect from Australia.
Did you drop the wrench? Fess up.
What's it like now, being older and having the time and ability to openly reflect on having the responsibility and power of ending the world in your hands? Does it ever bother you
I spit on you, Rob
@@fiendish67 I was curious about what happened so I watched this video
*The Damascus Missile Explosion (Disaster Documentary)*
ruclips.net/video/smQvR_VD7yw/видео.html
Perfect example of how a simple decision of not wanting to waste some time to go back and get the approved tool end up causing A LOT more waste of equipment and a death in the end. Still could have been a lot worse.
My hometown in SW Michigan was and is home to three nuclear reactors. We grew up with them so we didn't pay much attention to potential problems. After Three Mile Island in 1979, the government put the sirens in to warn of a meltdown, tornadoes, and to a lesser extent, a nuclear attack. They would test them once a month (scheduled and announced). I think the sirens were creepier than the actual nuclear reactors.
The town I use to live in had the exact same siren as in the video, it was used for the fire station and tornado warnings. Every time there was a fire it would go off. It was freaky getting woke up by it going off in the middle of the night.
Ahhhhh good ol cook nuclear plant
I’m in Michigan and I wanna hear it
@@Thememelord134 Cook Nuclear Power Plant is in Bridgman, MI, and Palisades Power Plant is in South Haven
@@jacksonvilletaxman1 thank you
I have no idea how it was done, but in about 1963 I was a member of a Boy Scout Explorer Post outside of Denver, CO which was sponsored by the Martin-Marietta Corp., the manufacturer of the Titan missile (probably 724-B). Our leaders, who were engineers at Martin, got us a tour of one of the operational Titan missile silos in the old Lowry bombing range east of Denver. I later found out that they were in the stages of closing the site, but before they did, we got to tour it. The diesels were providing noisy power to the facility and it was crawling with uniformed Air Force people, no workmen in sight. We walked out to one of the silos and the sergeant who was guiding our group pointed up to the top of the missile we were viewing and told us that that was a live "hydrogen bomb" (he used that description) about 30 feet above our heads. I don't know whether he was pulling our legs, but I would presume that they wouldn't have installed a dummy in its place. It was a great tour, but I have to really wonder how they'd let a bunch of teenagers do that.
Much simpler and better times
As an Air Force ROTC Cadet in High School in 1973 we toured the training version of the real deal in WY. It was definitely a very maturing experience for us. The idea that we were of the same generation that was still in the silos for a while made it real!🇺🇸
Where ya from ??
I was stationed at Little Rock AFB in 1985 through 1990. The Titans were in the process of being decommissioned at that time, but several were still active. Even though I was a C-130 troop, I'd helped out with the maintenance of one of the UH-1 helicopters that hauled the crews to the more remote sites. In appreciation, I got a ride on an incentive flight with a couple of other airmen and we "bounced" several of the sites. Impressive doors, and radio antennas. Don't know if it's true, but one of the missile maintenance guys who cross trained into avionics and came to our shop, SSgt Finley, told me if a bird landed on the HF transmitter antenna and they keyed the mic on the radio the bird would drop dead off of the antenna. It had THAT much power.
It's true, you don't really want to mess with HF. Lots of radiation, and the cause of some service members' cancer.
Definitely true. My dad was stationed at DMAFB in the late 70's to early 80's, then he transferred to LRAFB around '82. I remember years later, we were in Tucson and did a tour of that site. He told me stories about animals getting fried by the microwave antennas. The site is impressive...I was glad to have the perspective of someone that spent considerable time pulling alerts at those sites.
Thank you for this video. Great to have this museum and make people aware of the awesome responsibilities we had. I was Commander of the 373rd Strategic Missile Squadron (Titan) and can attest you got it right.
Thank you for your service Commander, so old workers like me finally have a safe place to retire! 🇺🇸 👍
This guy is a TRUE teacher. He really went through everything showing off EVERYTHING in a professional manner of course. But had the police come when the sirens rang out HAHA. Whose teacher would of had the balls to do that for a demonstration in the USA!? XD
Good they had a white guy answering the police ...
I took the tour at this museum several years ago. Very impressive stuff. The gyroscope for this missile is in the museum and is the size of a beach ball. Without that gyroscope, the missile would have a very difficult time flying to the target. It's an interesting look back at the technology of 50 years ago. In addition, some of the scenes in the Star Trek: First Contact movie were filmed in the silo in 1995.
Back then I believe the tour was given by the Air Force personal who were assigned to that site in the 1980's before it was shut down they all gotten lot older now I'm assuming retired from that.
50 years ago was 1972. This was 60-70 year old tech.
@@silicon212 A Luger from WW1, can kill you just as dead as a new Glock. Just because it's old, doesn't mean it wouldn't work.
@@elultimo102 Nobody ever said it wouldn't.
if it was this good back then.. can only imagine what its like today..
Our company, and I myself, designed some of the electronics for the MGAC, and also for the MGC & IMU of the various Titan missiles. The Titan-2-3-34-4s were all used up, for Space & Satellite launcher programs. This was one of the most successful launchers ever made. It is too bad that there is not an MX Peacemaker museum, which was also a nuclear weapons system, similar to this one.
About the sirens. Here in France, the alert sirens are still in operation. Each number of tone is suppose to indicate the type of impending danger (fire, flooding, high winds, bombing..) and the fifth one (5 tones) is supposedly to indicate a nuclear attack (but this was never confirmed nor denied - so could be lore culture). However, you'll hear it throughout France at 12PM (actually twice, once at 12:00 and once at 12:05) every first Wednesday of the month to ensure they still operate properly.
Did the tour and recall the firing sequence. The keys release electrolyte solution into a battery, which when mixed and began an inexorable voltage rise. In other words a delay until and at which time the battery put out 24 volts, then liftoff. Also, that the Titan class of nuclear weapons were second generation, having been moved south from the Dakotas after the Sputnik launch once the military realized the Russian first strike capability could wipe out our response.
In 1956 after I graduated from HS and before the USAF, I worked for the company that produce those batteries. I was QA and did the destructive and environmental testing of the batteries. It was interesting work.
1:37 We have 3 targets, 3 pre-programmed targets that we can launch against. They are: targets 1, 2 and 3.
Pre program
Russia, China & North Korea
@@zoegarcia7031
Exactly
Castro, Breshnev and Marylin Monroe.
Specific cities I think.
I have visited several Titan II Missile Silos in Arkansas, even the one that is mention in this video. The actual location of the silo that exploded was at South Side/Damascus , Arkansas. The Titan II missiles used a liquid fuel whereas the newer Minuteman Missiles use a solid fuel, and less chance to explode during any kind of maintenance procedure. The explosion caused the end of the Titan II missiles being used.
IN Cuban Missile Crisis, both JFK and Khruschev knew that the US had about 20-30 ICBMs ready to fire at a moment's notice, whereas the USSR had a handful of liquid-fuel rockets that took 24 hours to fuel and could not be un-fueled. Hence Khruschev had to blink when our Navy ordered the Soviet ships to stop. In an exchange, the US would be able to launch long before the Soviets.
@@nesbitstreet Unfortunately this change in the meanwhile :-(
The Minuteman I was already into deployment stage when that accident happened. Which was a positive on our part
@@nesbitstreet
The countdown to launch was 25 seconds, Khruschev said " I don't want to die today"!
@@nesbitstreet Actually, there was *more* than one reason why Khrushchev wanted those missiles out of Cuba. Castro wanted to launch the missiles that were already operational on to U.S. civilian population centers to forestall what he believed to be an imminent invasion by U.S. military forces on the island of Cuba.
Actually, the Titan silo accident that prompted the installation of the air raid horns at Titan silos, was in Damascus, Arkansas not Little Rock. In September of 1980, A large 8-pound socket from a wrench was dropped during maintenance and punctured the missile’s skin resulting in a fuel leak.
Some hours later there was an explosion that actually blew the silo door off the silo and the nuclear warhead was ejected and landed next to the complex entry gate.
@@LauRoot892 Central Arkansas. Remember as a kid seeing this event on the local news.
@@JosephMusgrove Ugh 😑
Impressive and melancholic at the same time… looking forward visiting the museum soon!
My dad worked in construction as a crane operator and helped to build Titan II missile sites in Arkansas back in the early 1960's.
who cares
@@BlueSky...... Actually, I do.
That’s cool did he have to get special permission I assume? That’s pretty serious stuff for a civilian.
@@BlueSky...... 26 people cared, but not a single person cared about your faggot ass comment
We heard this siren every day at Noon. If it's not oscillating from loud to quiet and back again, it's just a test. A straight blast is also the all clear siren. If it wavers, or "oscillates", that means get in a bomb shelter, because an attack may be imminent. They were originally air raid sirens for WWII. Since planes and missiles are still the way nuclear weapons are delivered, it's still a valid term.
I hear them ever so often here in illinois, they test them about once a month. Growing up I knew them as tornado sirens but they probably are the same thing. sounded the same too.
Crazy thing is that with the ability of the Russian navy to put subs off the coast, getting to a shelter nowadays wouldn't be possible. Launch to land would be just a few minutes, then BOOM. Probably the best answer would be , to be always ready for your final moments here on earth. Love God and your neighbor, and leave the rest to His hands. Just a thought.
@@MrSolLeks ours sound like they oscillate because they spin, in northern Illinois anyway.
Memories.
I was a Titan-II BMAT (Balistic Missile Analysist Technician) from '62 to' '70. The last 5 years as a Launch Crew Member.
BTW: We knew what our targets were. Every Air, Ground and Sea Launched Target was listed in the SIOP (Single Integrated Operations Plan). We had to access the SIOP to determine our available Launch Times under certain conditions.
This is legit
Thank you for your service sir
@Felicity Grossman Both. What Capt. Bruce Cathie (q.v.) discovered is that the Earth's fields wouldn't support more than one nuke going off at a time. They had to be programmed for specific places at specific times, pertaining to the relative position of the Sun and Moon at the intended point of impact. After one went off, the atmosphere and magnetic fields would be so distorted in several ways that another one wouldn't detonate for at least a day or more. Big secret .mil didn't want anybody knowing about, since the idea of 'all-out' nuclear war (M.A.D.) was the deterrent. Talk about insane . . .
@Felicity Grossman He spelled it out for you...SIOP (Single Integrated Operations Plan)
@@AZStarYT do you have a link to more information on that topic?
Amazing video. I hope we will NEVER see a day when nuclear weapons are used. My hat off to those who served in these silos, despite knowing the responsibility placed in their hands.
they've been used.. and against animals and civilians too
I'm originally from Scotland and I remember hearing the Air Raid sirens that would be tested periodically when I was at primary school around 1960.
I believe there were air raid sirens at most schools in Glasgow that were originally installed in WWII to warn the population that there were Bombers heading our way and we should head to the Anderson bomb shelters for protection.
I was only 5 years old when I first heard them and knew what was making all that noise.
I'm not sure if the sirens are still there but many of the Anderson bomb shelters were demolished although there are a few still surviving today but would not survive a nuclear blast.
Incredible how these machines of war and destruction were later converted into machines of peaceful exploration.
The Voyagers, Cassini-Huygens and many other interplanetary spacecraft were launched on rockets that were basically upgraded Titan missiles.
@JSC most based and redpilled individual in history
“These Machines” are solely responsible for keeping the peace that you and I enjoy, and have come accustomed to…
@@nigel900 facts
@@THESLlCK Precisely…
@JSC Yes, and it worked.
It’s hard to imagine what the operators of the missiles would feel after a launch if it came to that.
Totally numb would be my first guess. That's if one or both of the pair didn't refuse to launch.
Here you can hear about what happens after a launch, gives something of a perspective:
ruclips.net/video/FVZmFISzqwY/видео.html
Depends who the target was,in the case of Putin,glad,but you would have to be sure it got to its target.
Probaly just like that war games movie one is ready to do his job the other won’t kill millions .. every one is different under pressure everyone is different period ..
Get it launched before the enemies missle hits your launch site.
that horn freaks me out, so i guess it's up to the task of warning people.
I feel like a nuclear missile like this is kind of like a large tornado/volcano. Its a combination of being simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying. It has to be fascinating to see in person, and feel the immense magnitude of the responsibility the soldiers who worked here had and the gratitude that we've never had to use these weapons. Plus, it also puts in perspective that even today nuclear war is still a possibility and the idea of people casually throwing around terms like "ahh, just nuke em..." is not really something that should be casually thrown around. Very interesting report - and credit to the museum tour guy who was very knowledgable about this stuff and explaining the gravity of it.
0:20. He makes it sound like the 8.9MT W53 was the highest yield weapon the US ever deployed. It isn't, the 25MT B41 was.
What a great museum guide 👌you can tell he loves what he does 😀
Good video, I wish you had given the dimensions of the missile and showed how the missile crews lived underground and coped with the enormous responsibility they had to endure.
Scare me to turn the key/Was not or true.One of two guys had a gun ready to force the other guy to turn the key if the other guy dont turn the key/.Second the 2 would be locked in the room foreever if they had to turn the KEY.Takes guts to know you will destroy builting or things.But kill many on the other end.Scare me to death.I cant do it !!.Good educational video sir.
@@scottfailing7045 they both had guns, I recommend watching 1980's movie" war games", great scene about exactly this sinario u talk about in the opening part of movie!
Actually bigger bombs were made, they just were not needed because of the waste, most energy goes straight up because of atmospheric pressure.
@@tedmoss very true. Of much greater destructive power are several smaller warheads.
Would have been manned 24/7 for 21 years. Would love to know what their actual usual workday was like without the overdramatised BS. I would imagine there were plenty of daily system checks and possibly a weekly firing drill, but other than that it would have been a very quiet uneventful job. So would love to know what they did to pass those quiet times.
We had one of these Titan II missile silos 1 mile from our house....we figured if it happen, we would not even know it...French fried into dust...in a mili-second. We were basically at ground zero in a Soviet attack.
My father owned an old Nike missile base in Austin. It was off of 812. I still have the original survey and letters from the city, when he was planning on converting it in to a homeless boys shelter. Keep in mind, this was in the 80's. This was just outside of Bergstrom AFB (before it became a public airport). I barely remember going there as a kid. I'm 40 now
I grew up not far from a ammunition plant(s) that made ammo for WWII so we had those same sirens in town. After WWII they continued using them for decades to warn of tornadoes so this siren sound is very familiar to me.
That siren is identical to those used in Michigan for tornado warning sirens. If you hear that, a tornado has been spotted in your area. Yes, it's kind of spooky.
I was thinking the same thing. At the township hall in Wales, MI it still operates monthly. Well, when it works
@@raymondpierce8162 Oh yes, the monthly tests. They should let the local police know when they are going to fire it up.
I was a Minuteman II ICBM Combat Crew Member at Malmstrom AFB MT. Toward the end of my crew commitment we started getting a lot of ex Titan II crew members that were coming to the Minuteman weapons system to finish out their crew commitments. Many I knew had some really good "war stories" about that antiquated system. Look forward to visiting this site someday.
There was around 10 of us that came to Malmstrom. I went from 10 years pf Titan II PTS (Propellants) to (MMT) Minuteman II and III at Malmstrom. Retired in 1997 at Malstrom.
I was stationed active duty on those sites and can tell you there were no sirens like the one in the video. We had a claxon and a series of colored lights, but no air raid-type siren.
In Dayton, they have several decommissioned nuclear weapons on display, and it's, unsettling to say the least, to be standing next to something that could make 10 million people cease to exist.
The sound of that Federal Thunderbolt gives me chills. Grew up in a small town in West Texas that had a Thunderbolt as a tornado siren.
Me,too.Those sirens have been around for many years.Some still in operation . Used for weather,nukes,, tornado watch Warnings.The mid west st one point in time ,was prepared.
Sounds like this guy loves his job. Good for him.
It's not a nuclear weapon, it's a retired Titan II missile frame with empty Mk 6 RV. The W53 was the largest yield warhead deployed on US ICBM's, but not the highest yield US warhead. There were five other US nuclear weapons, deployed from the '50's to the mid '70's, with much higher yields. One had a yield of around 25 megatons- see "DOE Restricted Data Declassification Guide 8".
The largest missile/warhead goes to the Soviet SS-18, deployed with a single RV, in the 20-25 megaton range.
9 million tons of TNT seems pretty nuclear to me.
I'm not sure about Russia have the largest missile /warhead....not at all. US will NEVER give away classified details on how big a missile /warhead they have. My guess is maybe Russia got more nuclear bombs than US, but that doesn't mean US is behind Russia. US got less nuclear bombs/missiles, but have much better technology and strategic skills. It's not about how much but how effective they are. Russia will lose if Putin press the button . China will lose and North Korea. US got much more nuclear airpower (warplanes) than any other country. And US nuclear submarines are superiour. North Korea will be gone in less than an hour. I do not hope to experience a nuclear war, It will be devastating, and destroy almost all population on Earth, and destroy nature for over hundreds of years (radiation and nuclear winter) . But if Putin is crazy enough......he WILL pay a very high price - and lose
@@eriksrensen6369 there's no winner in a nuclear war ,just mutually assured destruction.
@@jamal4381 its TNT , not nuclear.
@@hdj81Vlimited no, they're called crazy crack-ups and sparkulars!
The RS-28 Sarmat is the largest ICBM in the world.
When I lived in Las Vegas during the 60's and 70's we could see (and feel) the nuclear blasts. We would place a stack of quarters on the ground and watch the blast shock wave from 90 miles away knock them over!
Got back from a 12 day holiday in Arizona 10 days ago. There were many highlights of that trip - the people, the incredible vistas - and a visit to this museum.
I volunteered as the Deputy Commander - and turned the launch-key to send the 9 Mt warhead on it's way.
For more than a decade the United States, stock piled 500, 24 megaton bombs, they were bomber only weapons to be carried by B-52s. The Titan was capable of carrying a more powerful warhead, but one was never fitted to them.
holy fuck.
This is museum remains of a pre-historical doomsday that didn't happen. The up to date version doesn't even compare to it.
My father was an electronics engineer on the one in Wyoming and Montana, from 1962 to 1964 helping with the installation in while working for Boeing.
👏👏👏
Super.great man
Very powerful video!!! Can't say enough. Thanks again for sharing.
In the mid-1970s, I knew a fellow in a church choir in San Francisco who used to serve in a missile silo launch base. He said that stress on his conscience was such that he finally got to the point where he went to his commanders and told then unequivocally that, if he were ever given the order to launch, he would refuse. So he was relieved of duty. Even by the time I met him, he came across as very nervous and fearful.
Wish I would've known about this 2 years ago. Toured the western USA and would have definitely added it to the itinerary.
If you drove down I-10 in Arizona on the stretch from east of Benson AZ to the west side of Tucson AZ then you drove by 6 old decommissioned silos. exit 292 Empirita rd is an empty exit in the middle of no where and all that is out there is a rancher, illegal immigrants, drug mules, and titan silo 571-4 it is my favorite one because I was paid to live on the land to guard the bunker from copper thieves. And I have been down in it before they buried it again to stop those thieves. And they where still trying to dig down the 30 ft by hand with a shovel just for the copper wire. lol. I DO NOT RECOMEND GOING DOWN IN ANY OF THEM. They are private property, and extremely dangerous due to the darkness, old conditions, holes in the floors that drop down to places with no way out, the hole dug to get in it can collapse and trap you with no way out and no way to call for help ever. They are cool but not worth the risk of injury, death, and asbestos causing mesothelioma. The pictures are better really.
@@bobthompson4319 Awesome. Did you lose that when they buried it? Thats a job i could get used to doing.😂
@@bobthompson4319 how about racists? Any down there?
Remember too that the Titan II missile was what launched our Gemini astronauts into space, lest you doubt the ability of the Titan II to get a payload into space, or into an enemy!
It's not a nuclear weapon. It's the Phoenix, a warp capable rocket!
I was 24 when I checked out as a Deputy Missile Crew Commander at Davis Monthan in 1979. A year later, at 26, I was a Crew commander, in charge of my own crew. I actually pulled a few alert tours at that museum site but my home site was 571-5, up in Madera Canyon, a nature preserve, about 12 miles away. Many people say young people cannot shoulder responsibility. Most of us were still kids. The "old" guys were in their mid 30's. The enlisted crew members were often younger than the new officers. The military has a great way of screening and training to get the desired result. A year after I upgraded to crew commander, I was flying a supersonic T-38 trainer by myself out of Williams AFB. Young people can do amazing things with the right frame of mind, and excellent training.
As a crew member at Little Rock AFB in the 60's and 70's it's difficult to explain the emotional weight of the job. You had, in your hands, the power to totally destroy a city like Moscow with the turn of a key. That feeling never leaves you...
Therefore, people like you were constantly followed. You won't be alone on such duty.
@@strengthfactor1315 never alone while on duty.
@@rondameron7073 That's what it's about.
Don't forget that if you were to destroy Moscow, Moscow would destroy half of the U.S.
@@krypton1886 And you point is? I was talking about responsibilities, and duty. And you, response?
It was not Little Rock AR, it was Damascus AR in Falkner county, where the missile blew up in the silo. I was visiting the now defunct silo, after my spouse told me about the incident where the bomb landed a few hundred yards away in a chaps garden.
Did it blew with nuclear weapon? Or just the missile?
@@luisaleman4008 luckily the warhead was intact and only the missile exploded, just one of the several thousand nuclear accidents in us history.
Did warhead detonate....blimey we'd have heard it here, in little limey land!
@@dominicseanmccann6300 no, the warhead did not detonate.
I know mate. Just as well. Fucking maniacs.
During 1966 I was in the Air Force stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB 390th SMS. While there i worked with a SGT Brewer we were both electricians and very close friends. I lost contact with him and would like information where he lives.
m.ruclips.net/video/OGcSg9EJ9Ww/видео.html
He Moved to the south Carolina.
@@ironjohn5914 thanks im checking it out wish i had your email address
@@ironjohn5914 I'm not having any luck with South Carolina , would you have any other information . Thank You
I wish humanity had invested all the research coming to this into positive things, that actually made our world a better place.
We have been like that since the age of the caveman and always will be unfortunately. Animals are much more respectful to each other, within the same species at least
This is a great tour. I visited the museum back in 1987. You get to see the entire facility, including the Control Center and living quarters for the USAF crews. Just like the immense cavern at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, where I've been on a tour of the inside, the architecture of the weapon delivery system and the facilities designed and built to support this deterrence is an amazing engineering feat.
Can you imagine if your government spent all this money, knowledge and energy into helping the poor and cleaning our planet???? What an Insanity.
With the nuclear war tension at its highest today, imagine those alarms going off accidentally.
During the Cold War in 1981 in Coventry UK, I was woken at 4am by the air raid siren.
I was not around in WW2 to hear all of those sirens, but I knew what it was.
Delivery time from the Soviet Union was 4 mimutes at the time.
After ten minutes nothing happened so I knew it was a false alarm and went back to sleep.
It was in the press the next day but I never found out what caused it.
I haven't heard one since and do not want to
I know we are never going to actually call their bluff, but every time I see how complex not just the manufacturing, but also the MAINTENENCE, of a nuclear weapon is, it really makes me wonder just how many nukes Russia has and just how many could actually be used during a real nuclear war. And this is something that I wondered long before the Ukraine invasion...but now that we've seen the unimaginable incompetence of the Russians in Ukraine, it just makes me even more skeptical of Russian nuclear force.
The most amazing thing may be how the Russians have managed to avoid nuking THEMSELVES in an accident up to this point. Seeing how beat the Russian ground forces' equipment is, just imagine what kind of shape their freaking NUKES are in?!?! The people in charge of the Russian ground forces have been skimming billions of dollars that were to be used for maintenance so you can GUARANTEE that the ones in charge of the nukes have done the same.
I mean Russia can't even afford ONE functioning aircraft carrier. The one they DO have in "active" use quite literally cruises around WITH ITS OWN TUGBOAT because it is not a possibility...it is a GUARANTEE...that the ship will break down and need to be towed back to port on every single deployment it attempts. And we seriously believe that the Russians can afford to maintain an arsenal of THOUSANDS of nuclear weapons?!?! It's pretty terrifying when you think about it. Especially because a Russian nuke detonating in its own launch silo could easily be misconstrued as an American "first strike". Or if Russia's leader was a crazy, angry midget, it could be used as an unintentional...or maybe even INTENTIONAL..."false flag" nuclear attack as an excuse for Russia to launch nukes against NATO.
Don't get me wrong...these aren't things that I worry about AT ALL. Not even right now. But it IS a little bit terrifying to sit down and think about it. Especially now that the entire world is aware of just how laughably pathetic and incompetent the Russian military really is. They are going to be a laughingstock on the international stage probably forever now. Not hard to imagine a crazy midget in Moscow wanting to STOP the laughter and ridicule by "proving" just how "dangerous" Russia really is with a nuclear strike. Although I suppose there is always a chance that they would try something like that to "prove their might" and the idiots would end up nuking THEMSELVES on accident. "Yuri! Dear Leader Vladimir has given the order to launch our nuclear ICBM! Launch the missile now!" Missile launches and instead of turning towards the US it flies a few thousand feet into the air and then the jet engines burn out and it falls right back down on Russia and vaporizes a quarter of the country. "Great success!"
Lol I was wondering the same thing too and you bring up some good points. If the US missiles are this old, relics of the cold war, I wonder what shape they're in right now.
But yeah even if a Russian nuclear bomb failed (which it could), it would still spell trouble for the rest of us even if the bomb backfired. Firing at all is enough for a nuclear winter.
Sadly Russia is on the cutting edge when it comes to rockets that's why Nasa scraped the space shuttle and now uses Russian rockets
@@LunasEmpireSL I don’t think so. The Soyuz rocket is a very cramped rocket to transport humans in and the toilets aren’t very great. NASA only used Soyuz for cost savings because it was easier to buy a seat on a rocket already headed to the ISS vs hosting their own expensive launch using STS. SpaceX crew dragon reduces the cost per seat by 3x vs shuttle. So we’re probably using SpaceX going forward. Way better rocket than Soyuz.
@@aaronlowe3156 russia has invested alot in their rockets, look at the zircon. what people dont understand, ukraine isnt seeing russias entire military power, but yes russia is weaker than most people think ( minus the nuclear bombs)
Keep Hoping
Damn and Russia waving about with hypersonic missles with multiple 100megaton+ warheads
Titan could carry a W-53 warhead (9 megaton) though highest yield US ever deployed was B-41 (carried by B 47 and B 52 bombers) Yield was the largest US deployed - 25 Megaton
The thought of how powerful nuclear bombs are is so incredibly terrifying I literally felt the colour drain from my face watching this
the power you have with those keys must feel like: i am become death the destroyer of worlds
*HAVE BECOME. HAVE IS THE CORRECT GRAMMAR
not-fun-at-all-----I-was-launch-control------it-ruins-all-hope-in-life-forever---damn-it-381st-MiMs
@neo -best-laugh-all-day
I have been a key turner during a demonstration felt weird
@@halo129830 only.seen.3.new.people.come.on.down.at.around.3.yrs..vice.pres.and2.handlers.
he.wanted.to.see.God.himself.so.I.lowed.9.level.so.they.have.to.look.hard.upward.vice.pres.passed.out.life.achievment.paid.for
The fact that this weapons event exists is a failure of humanity
No not really it's a marvel of human engineering
WELL SAID.
@@ninjanutzforfun1105 basically both.
If it’s ultimate purpose was ever used, US/Soviets had 19,000 nukes combined, you would have thanked humanity for gifting you mercy…………
People never wonder why not one drop of blood is found at (not for the public domain)
@@ninjanutzforfun1105 it's no marvel, if it's inception is based on faulty logic. Aiming to destroy more effectively is not what i would consider evolution.
I'm old enough to remember that sound of that siren
As a kid in the early 1960s it used to frighten me to hear those sirens when they tested them. Usually there were two distinct sounds you had to listen for, the sound of the siren and usually about the time the siren went off there would be this shrill blast coming from a nearby radio or Television that would last about a minute after which a warning would be announced (all of the time it would be" This is a test by the American Civil Defense broadcasting network, this is only a test"). Those words got burned into my mind because I'd heard them so much back then. Back then we were so close to Nuclear war (Nikita Khrushchev used to threaten us with nukes regularly) a finger slip and 30 minutes would kill millions of people. Today whether or not you are aware of it, a finger slip and 30 minutes and it seems Vladimir Putin is doing the same thing Nikita Khrushchev did back then with a twist. Khrushchev used to bang his shoe on the podium during a speech and directly threaten a Nuclear strike against the U.S. and even try to move mid ranged Nuclear Missiles into Cuba where as today Putin is claiming that a first strike with offensive nukes is actually a defensive measure and he too is claiming he'll put nukes in Cuba AND Venezuela. Putin is like a little Nikita Khrushchev. Frankly they kind of even look alike.
You are taught the wrong story. In fact, the U.S. was the first to deploy its nuclear missiles in Turkey. Cuba was a retaliatory measure in the framework of self-defense
Now Putin is doing the same thing. You, the terrorists, are trying to force the whole world to obey you, and those who do not obey - destroy you.
@@krypton1886 Stop lying. And so you can read it . . . Прекратите говорить то, что не соответствует действительности
@@krypton1886 We set up missile tracking stations in Turkey. YOUR government was the one who lied and told you it was missiles. Turkey would not let us deploy missiles on their territory. Мы установили станции слежения за ракетами в Турции. ВАШЕ правительство солгало и сказало вам, что это ракеты. Турция не позволила бы нам разместить ракеты на своей территории.
@@bash060656, If you think I'm lying, read history
During the Cold War the Russians had missiles with 25 megaton warheads aimed at the U.S. That is 1,667 times more powerful than the bomb that fell on Hiroshima. ..... If a 500 kiloton, or 1/2 megaton warhead hit New York City the fireball alone would be the size of Manhattan Island.
How they guided anything in the 1960s is a miracle, but they did have televisions.
Brand new computers for sure. Have you seen how the core memory of Apollo was made? It's fascinating.
Smaller warheads on Minuteman 3 and Trident are all that is needed due to much more accurate delivery.
If you can deliver the weapon within 100 yards of the tareget instead of 1,000 yards, you do not need such a large warhead to destroy the target, plus you can get more smaller warheads into the one missile.
Great video. Great tour guide. I would love to check it out.
Fascinating and disturbing at the same time! I've been to the NTSHF National Atomic Testing Museum (NATM) in Las Vegas, the Los Alamos museum and Manhattan Project National Historical Park. One thing that still seems a mystery, I wonder what the "shelf life" is for a nuclear weapon? Does the fissile material get swapped out or re-enriched on a regular schedule? How do you "retire" a nuclear warhead? There is a lot of current news about apparent financial shenanigans within the Russian military, it's contractors, suppliers and super-wealthy oligarchs heading up Russian armaments companies. Given some of the reports of unsafe brittle un-maintained tires on APCs, out of date MREs, malfunctioning and never serviced equipment - yet apparently all these replacements and maintenance cycles have been paid for by the Russian government. Seems the funds to do this critical servicing are simply evaporating and the receiving military are simply signing off and presumably taking a cut! We have to wonder if the same skimming, corner-cutting and lack of integrity occurs within nuclear weapons programs in Russia's (or for that matter China and the US) infrastructures? Given these programs are also all shrouded in secrecy, how would we ever know?
For the fissile material itself, having a half-life of 24'000yrs (Plutonium) and 700 million years (uranium), it does not need to be re-enriched or need to get swapped. It's likely the other components would have to get replaced because of age or radiation damage. But most of the warheads, are not constantly armed. Fissile cores were usually inserted in the last moments before launch, except obviously for on-alert missiles.
About "retire", most fissile material cores can be recycled and used in nuclear reactors, which has been done a lot in the last years. Also, it can be used to power space vehicles like probes or rovers.
The danger of "cost" cutting can be a problem, but since nuclear warheads are very complex and delicate, it's much more likely that an actually launched missile would not detonate, than the chance that one just explodes. As mentioned above, most weapons do not have installed the actual fissile material before the final launch.
@@verruekterPhysiker Many thanks for the info. My dad was a submarine engineering commander in the Royal Navy and was later a naval overseer for the propulsion systems on many of the nuclear subs built up at Barrow in Furness so he often talked about the challenges with rapid metal degradation inside nuclear reactor cores . Stainless steel and nickel were predominant with the biggest concerns over welded components typically using a nickel-chromium-iron alloy rod. Seem to recall the radiation accelerated failure rate was referred to as stress corrosion cracking. I think the most amazing and disturbing experience I had was visiting the reactor compartment during "family days" at the naval base. I actually got to peek down at the glowing core (through a very thick gamma glass port).
Are missiles launched by a person on site or remotely from the Chief?
Love the commitment of the guy giving tours! Want to visit next time in AZ.
Lived an hour away for years and never knew...my parents fucking suck
I know the feeling. First i heard about nukes was a civil 'defence' leaflet. Where i grew up in London we was, err, screwed.The old ww2 siren at end of road used to let us know we were gon was tested once in 1980. Soviets invaded Afghanistan..shit. i'll never forget the fear i felt.
You should thank you parents, at least you never worrierd about being close to a Soviet first strike target
No , I wouldn't say your parents suck, I would say they wanted you to sleep soundly at night and not be afraid of what could happen.
This was 60 plus years ago!!! I can't even imagine what they have in the way of arms now days!!! Scary 😳😳😳
You're holding it in your hand as you read this message
@@samuelg3586 huh?
Propaganda
@@davidkruse4030 I think he is referring to your computer (surely not your dick?)
Much smaller warheads, average 120kiloton, but very accurate by comparison so smallwe warheads are sufficient to hit and destroy the target
Zephram Cochrans Phoenix? 🤔
This brings back memories of when i worked with all 18 Titan sites around Wichita Kansas back from 1971 to 1974.
We are idiots for allowing people to even make weapons like this
Yes, but what is your stance on making AI than even more dangerous than this ? ruclips.net/video/J6Mdq3n6kgk/видео.html
This is a perfect timing for Ukraine & Russia conflict.
1:50 I bet one of them is Russia
no shit sherlock 😅
There is the same post Soviet museum in Ukraine.
We were there before 24.02.2022 with my family we are from Russia. And there were a group of people from Lviv. We spoke different languages but understood each other. Everyone were proud that we are part of this history and
understood the responsibility of having such weapons. The guide even said that he would not use the nukes in any case against Russia because alot of families in Ukraine and Russia have relatives on each side not speaking of how many civilians including kids would die.
And nowadays ukrainian president and russian media workers allow themselves to throw words about nukes like its nothing.
People definetely degrade
*This guy is awesome* He’s super passionate & I bet he’s got a lot of awesome stories! 🤙🏼
All the nuclear weapons now in arsenals (a fraction of what it was in the 1960's) could only destroy an area about 250 miles on a side. Hardly the "planet-killing scenario" envisioned by doomsayers.
Russia has hundreds of 10 megaton warheads
@@billsmith9966 I dont think so. They "may" have some 2-5MT ICBMS still but 10 megaton warheads were deemed a waste in the 1970s and the two nations developed MIRV weapons with multiple 100kT+ warheads in one missile, capable of more widespread damage.
No.
@@billsmith9966 Have a look at a photo of planet Earth from space missions and see how large it is. Now picture a nuclear explosion somewhere on that planet. Reality is, it will be just a pin-head in size. This idea that man can destroy the world with nukes is a bit far fetched.
@@bobolulu7615 that's true.. but 9000 nukes going off will destroy human life
I know were the 3 target country is #
1. Russia
2. North Korea
3. China😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣
No, the first target is Las Vegas
1:37 all 3 targets are in mother Russia 😂
I can't imagine what it would be like being a commander and you being ordered to fire the missile.
The fate of millions at your fingertips, a once populated city gone in a matter of seconds.
We used to have a siren like that, or similar, in downtown Houston. It would always go off at exactly 12:00 Noon every Friday. People would set the clocks and watches by it. I still miss hearing it.
😑
I'm actually a siren enthusiast or someone who shares the same interest, if you're interested in looking at my channel you can find plenty of videos of all kinds of sirens including those types called the "Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000" in the video also can be found on my channel so you can find documentations of them that I've filmed around the state of Michigan.
Jesus is coming back very soon, please accept Jesus Christ into your heart to be saved🙏🙌
u cant save the human race