Information AboutLgm-118a Peacekeeper |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT LGM-118A PEACEKEEPER | |
| intercontinental ballistic missiles of the united states | |
| united states air force guided missiles | |
|
The LGM-118A Peacekeeper, also known as the "MX missile", was a land-based ICBM deployed by the United States starting in 1986. Under the START II treaty, which never entered into force, the missile was to be removed from the U.S. nuclear arsenal in 2005, leaving the LGM-30 Minuteman as the only type of land-based ICBM in the U.S. arsenal. In spite of the demise of START II, the last of the LGM-118A "Peacekeeper" ICBMs were decommissioned on September 19, 2005. The Peacekeeper was a MIRVed missile; each rocket could carry up to 10 re-entry vehicles, each armed with a 300- Kiloton W87 Warhead /MK-21 RVs (twenty times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II )1. STRATEGY The development of the Peacekeeper began with the intent of its being a Counterforce , hard-target weapon. It was to be aimed at hardened enemy missile silos with first-strike capability. This requirement demanded outstanding accuracy, survivability, range and a flexibility that was not available in the Minuteman III . Accuracy was an especially important issue, since the effects of the blast and heat from a thermonuclear detonation decrease very rapidly with distance from the impact point. The targets were very hardened Soviet ICBM-silos, especially those housing the heavy SS-18 , which was targeted at Minuteman Missile silos. Theory of destabilization MIRVed ICBMs are considered by some experts as destabilizing, because they tend to increase the vulnerability of a nation's nuclear deterrent to a First Strike , and therefore increase a nation's motivation to launch missiles as early as possible, perhaps even before completely reliable confirmation of an enemy attack is available. For example, in principle a single Soviet warhead could have destroyed ten US warheads had it caught a Peacekeeper missile in its silo. This 10-for-1 leverage meant Soviet military planners could have allocated only a modest portion of their nuclear arsenal to a first strike, keeping a substantial portion in reserve with which to deter any US retaliation. This vitiates the idea that Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) will prevent either side from attacking first. In response to the increased vulnerability of a Peacekeeper missile force to a first strike, this theory suggests US military planners would have been motivated to adopt a policy of launching Peacekeeper missiles at the very first hint of a Soviet first strike, e.g. as soon as Soviet missiles in flight were detected by Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar, or by infrared sensors on Defense Support Program satellites. An adoption of such a policy would have raised the probability of Accidental Nuclear War , since far less time could elapse between an early warning of a Soviet strike and the final decision to launch US retaliation or not. US military commanders would have had less time to seek confirmation of the strike, less time to seek confirmation of Soviet intentions, and less time to weigh alternative options (such as a Limited Nuclear War ), all of which presumably increases the probability that a mistaken decision to initiate full-scale nuclear warfare will be made. A non-MIRVed ICBM, such as the Minuteman I, was considered under this theory as less destabilizing, since it would have taken one Soviet warhead to destroy one US warhead. Without any leverage Soviet planners would have needed to allocate all of their missiles to a first strike, leaving them unable to deter US retaliation, and leaving intact the premise of MAD that is supposed to deter first strikes. A submarine-launched ballistic missile ( SLBM ) was considered under the same theory as a stabilizing weapon, because of the inability to detect a ballistic missile submarine when submerged. Since a submarine could be assumed to survive any first strike, there would be much less motivation for a policy of launching SLBMs early, and military commanders could count on taking more time to collect and weigh evidence of enemy actions and intentions, and weigh the merits of all possible responses. It should be noted that the theory that offensive weapons which decrease a nation's vulnerability to a first strike (such as SLBMs) are ''stabilizing'' is not easy to reconcile with the alternative theory that defensive weapons which likewise decrease a nation's vulnerability to a first strike (such as ABM systems or the 1980s Strategic Defense Initiative proposal) are ''destabilizing''. In part because of concerns over destabilization, MIRVed ICBMs were banned under the START II agreement, and the last US Peacekeeper missile was dismantled in 2005. DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT Design work began in 1972 on the MX (Missile-eXperimental). In 1976, Congress refused to fund a silo-based system on grounds of vulnerability and the project was halted until 1979 when President Carter authorized development of a system of multiple protective shelters linked by road. President Reagan canceled the new shelter system in 1981 and pushed for a "dense pack" solution to speed deployment. This "dense pack" idea involved building super-hardened silos that would withstand more than 10,000 Psi (70 MPa ) of Overpressure and spacing them only 1,800 feet (550 m) apart. The reasoning behind this idea was that a nearby nuclear explosion would damage other incoming warheads in the same wave of attack and would allow a substantial portion of the missiles to survive. This "fratricide theory" was fundamentally flawed due to the relative ease with which the Soviets could modify their warheads and circumvent this design. Congress again rejected the silo-based system. A compromise was developed in mid-1983, by which there would be swift deployment of 100 new missiles in existing Minuteman silos to show "national will", the removal of the venerable Titan II ICBM from use, and the later introduction of a new more mobile single-warhead ICBM. bus.]] The missile was officially designated the LGM-118A Peacekeeper. It was first test fired on June 17, 1983, from Vandenberg AFB, California , traveling 4,200 nautical miles (7,800 km) to impact successfully in the Kwajalein Test Range in the Pacific. The operational missile was first manufactured in February 1984 and deployed in December 1986 to the Strategic Air Command , 90th Strategic Missile Wing at F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming into retro-fitted Minuteman silos. Fifty working missiles had been deployed at Warren by December 1988. The planned deployment of one hundred missiles was canceled by Congress in July 1985, again over the survivability problem. In that decision, Congress limited the deployment of Peacekeeper ICBMs to 50 missiles until a more survivable basing plan could be developed. The survivability problem was to be solved by a "rail garrison" system whereby 25 trains, each with two missiles, would use the national railroad system to conceal themselves. It was intended that this system would become operational in late 1992, but budgetary constraints and the changing international situation led to it being scrapped. The project had cost around $20 billion up to 1998 and produced 114 missiles, at $400 million for each operational missile. The "flyaway" cost of each missile is estimated at $20–70 million. The missiles were gradually retired, with 17 withdrawn during 2003, leaving 29 missiles on alert at the beginning of 2004. At the start of 2005 only 10 remained on alert, scheduled to be retired by the end of the year. The last Peacekeeper was removed from alert on September 19,2005 during the final deactivation ceremony when the 400th Missile Squadron inactivated as well.2 The rockets are being converted to a satellite launcher role by Orbital Sciences , as the OSP-2 Minotaur IV SLV , while their warheads will be deployed on the existing Minuteman III missiles. Operational test launches were performed by the men and women of the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg AFB, California. This squadron is also the home of "TOP HAND", a board-selected professional development program for missile launch officers. of the Peacekeeper re-entry vehicles, all eight fired from only one missile. With live warheads, each line would represent the explosive power of twenty Hiroshima -sized ( Little Boy ) weapons.]] LGM-118A Peacekeeper
OPERATOR
SEE ALSO
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|