After more than six decades, the Minuteman III nuclear weapon system is due for a major upgrade in three western states.
WINIFRED, Montana—The landscape is stark and unforgiving, typical of deep winter in rural Montana.
The snow-covered Judith Mountains rise majestically in the distance, while vast fields of dormant wheat, hay, and barley stretch beneath a gloomy gray sky blanketed in white.
Ed Butcher, 81, peered through the cracked windshield of his red Honda all-wheel drive, which had been struck by a bird a few days earlier.
At the end of an eight mile gravel road, two miles east of the family homestead in Winifred (population 174), he could see his destination.
The one-acre plot is secured by a chain-link fence, complete with surveillance cameras, motion sensors, and barbed wire.
On the fence hangs a sign that reads “Restricted Area,” warning that anyone who breached the fence could be subject to the authorized use of lethal force.
“This is it—the grand tour,” Butcher exclaimed as he parked the vehicle and stepped outside into the biting cold wind and tundra.
He pointed through the fence and said, “There’s the missile.”
Beneath tons of reinforced steel and concrete inside the Hatch Launch E05 facility, the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) has remained on alert for a nuclear attack for 60 years.
In 1964, when Butcher was in high school, his father sold a one-acre plot to the Air Force for $100, allowing it to house this single missile with a nuclear warhead, sitting thousands of miles away from a potential target.
The Minuteman missile system is a powerful weapon system, developed in the late 1950s and deployed a decade later at strategic locations across the United States.
It was a groundbreaking development at the time, combining speed, mobility, and reliability to achieve nearly a 100 percent alert rate—two launch crew officers provide around-the-clock alert ability in the launch center, according to the Air Force.
The missile stands 59 feet tall and weighs 79,342 pounds. It can travel up to 8,700 miles at speeds reaching 15,000 miles per hour outside the atmosphere.
By Allan Stein
