Only in America would the US government reveal precise details of its ICBM silo anti-personnel security hatches, combination locks, timers and defensive firearms
via David Hambling, writing for Forbes, September 16, 2020 at
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2020/09/16/us-enhances-last-line-of-nuclear-missile-silo-defense/#7ac6977f6f56
"...The U.S. Air Force is improving the protection of its nuclear missile silos from against attacks by terrorists or other ground forces, with a $21 million contract to Northrop Grumman
One ton outer access hatch (above) and 7 ton B-Plug "hatch" below. (Photos and details courtesy US Air Force via Forbes.)
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Well, you know, terrorists will try to hijack a Minuteman warhead rather than pick an easier target like Pakistan or India. It was known that the protective measures of the former of the two new powers were to drive around the warheads in trucks, and they only had rudimentary security measures compared to the older nuclear powers. This was over ten years ago when the Taliban were attacking their military bases. Yeah, I want to sign up for a suicide mission to grab a Minuteman warhead with little chance of success.
ReplyDeleteHi jbmoore [your September 20, 2020 at 3:04 PM}
ReplyDeleteI think the details and photos that presumably came from the USAF would certainly attract the interest of "peace" demonstrators and also nutters who may want to make a political or illogical statement by disrupting Minuteman base routines.
Other nuclear armed countries just don't advertise such nuclear weapon base details - probably due to the demonstrator, nutter and foreign interference risks.
Pakistan indeed has special and greater risks of Islamic suicide-terrorist or "Taliban" threats to Pakistani bases
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-3_Orion#Pakistan
"On 22 May 2011, two out of the four Pakistani P-3Cs were destroyed in an attack on PNS Mehran, a Pakistani Naval station in Karachi"
The risk included the possibility the Pakistani P-3Cs could be armed with nuclear depth bombs with the hopefully remote risk such bombs might be stored at Pakistani bases.
Regards
Pete
Would-be attackers won't learn anything from public material that would help them succeed. What they will learn, if they're smart enough to study what is available, is that getting in is practically impossible, and likely suicidal.
ReplyDeleteThere's a good deal of public information about the design and construction of bank vault doors and high security safes.
The combinations are kept secret, as they should be. If security depends on keeping the _design_ secret, it is weak security.