Nuclear Missile Silos
Sites that house land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) on or near military bases.
Total sites since 1942
- 567 Sites
At a glance
Nuclear missile silos are structures that house and protect intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) armed with nuclear warheads. They are built underground to shield the missiles from airstrikes and other attacks. Each silo also contains a launch facility where the missile is prepared for launch. While some silos have been decommissioned, hundreds remain active today. These stand ready to launch by presidential order within a matter of minutes, 24/7/365. In the event of an attack (or an apparent one), the president has only moments to decide whether or not to launch nuclear weapons in retaliation, and once they have been deployed they cannot be recalled.
Why you should care
There have been many recorded safety accidents at nuclear missile silos over the years, including one in which 53 workers died.
ICBM missile silos are sometimes referred to as “nuclear sponges” because they are the locations designed to absorb an initial nuclear attack on the United States. Because these nuclear weapons are meant to either “soak up” a nuclear attack by an opposing force or be launched in retaliation to a nuclear threat, there is an associated “use it or lose it” mentality that adds to the pressure over whether or not to launch them during a crisis. There have been numerous close calls in the past when accidents have led sensors to detect threats that were not real, and it was only through situational luck that the nuclear weapons were not launched.
The current US ICBM force consists of Minuteman III missiles in silos around the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska; Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana; and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. If the United States chose to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike, Russia and China, which have thousands and hundreds of nuclear weapons respectively, would almost certainly retaliate, placing millions of community and service members throughout these five states at risk of being sacrificed by the US government. The loss of life and environmental devastation this would entail is unconscionable. Click here to learn more about who would be at risk if US ICBM silos were attacked.
