America's Nuclear Arsenal

A U.S. Air Force technician attaches a mechanical mule to pull open a four foot-thick blast door covering a Peacekeeper Intercontinental Ballistic Missile silo in eastern Wyoming. A battery was being changed after it's ten-year life had run its course. Intense maintenance schedules are performed on the U.S. missile fleet to keep it in a state of readiness despite the end of the cold war. The 80 foot-tall, 196,000-pound missile fits in a cylinder like a piston, allowing crews to gently raise and lower it with only 30 pounds per square inch of air pressure. The missile was raised a few feet to allow access to bolts.

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Filename: Missiles_02.jpg
Copyright: © Kevin Moloney, 1997
Image Size: 5655x3744 / 9.4MB; Intercontinental Ballistic Miss arms Cold War ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile missile nuclear war weapon silo bomb
Contained in galleries: Wyoming

A U.S. Air Force technician attaches a mechanical mule to pull open a four foot-thick blast door covering a Peacekeeper Intercontinental Ballistic Missile silo in eastern Wyoming. A battery was being changed after it's ten-year life had run its course. Intense maintenance schedules are performed on the U.S. missile fleet to keep it in a state of readiness despite the end of the cold war. The 80 foot-tall, 196,000-pound missile fits in a cylinder like a piston, allowing crews to gently raise and lower it with only 30 pounds per square inch of air pressure. The missile was raised a few feet to allow access to bolts.