Air Force: Russians inspected Malmstrom's demolished missile facilities

Apr. 21, 2014
This file photo shows the launch key mechanism at a deactivated launch facility. Air Force officials say Russian inspectors visited Montana this month to verify that 18 nuclear missile launch facilities have been demolished as part of a 2011 arms-control treaty. / AP Photo/Minuteman Missile NHS

Written by
Jenn Rowell
Tribune Staff Writer

Russian inspectors visited Malmstrom Air Force Base earlier this month to verify that nuclear missile silos had been eliminated in accordance with the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

The Russian inspectors verified April 9 that 18 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launch facilities had been eliminated.

Those launch facilities were part of the former 564th Missile Squadron, which was deactivated in 2008. All 50 of the squadron’s launch facilities will be demolished.

The initial phase of elimination began in January.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Air Force Civil Engineering Center selected Bryan Construction Inc. of Colorado Springs, Colo., as the demolition contractor. Current estimates call for eliminating the 50 launch facilities, located in Toole, Pondera, Teton and Chouteau counties, by early 2015.

The contractor will eliminate the launch facilities by filling them with earth and gravel. Gravel fill is a more effective and environmentally friendly method of elimination that’s also faster and more economical than those used in the past under the original START treaty. The work doesn’t pose any threat to public safety or the environment, according to Malmstrom officials.

The verification immediately reduces the number of ICBM launchers the U.S. is accountable for under New START requirements.

The New START treaty, ratified by the Senate in 2010, limits the United States and Russia to no more than 1,550 deployed warheads; 800 deployed and nondeployed ICBM launchers, submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers; and to have reduced their deployed ICBMs, SLBMs and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear weapons to no more than 700. The treaty deadline is February 2018.

The Type Two inspection gives Russian inspectors 12 hours to visit the eliminated sites and confirm that each launcher closure door has been removed and that the launcher tube is filled with earth and gravel.

This was the first inspection of this kind at Malmstrom, said Richard Bialczak, 341st Missile Wing treaty compliance office chief.



“The inspections we usually have are a Type One, and that’s when we go out to the sites and verify warheads and missiles,” Bialczak said.

Under treaty protocol, Type Two inspections cannot be used to verify deployed launchers at an operational ICBM base or to confirm the number of re-entry vehicles on top of deployed ICBMs, according to Malmstrom. This type of inspection is normally reserved for storage and test facilities or to verify conversions or eliminations of strategic delivery vehicles. Russia is limited to eight Type Two inspections of U.S. facilities each year.

Malmstrom had one day’s notice that it had been selected for inspection, according to base officials. The Russians and personnel from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency arrived at 9 a.m. April 9, and the site inspections started at noon.

The Russian team was divided into two groups, each visiting sites until all 18 were verified. They traveled on Malmstrom buses and were led by the 341st Security Forces Group. Bialczak said the inspection had to be completed within 12 hours.

At each site, the Russians used a GPS to confirm they were standing on a launcher and walked around the site to verify the demolition had been completed. Each site only required a few minutes to check.

“The sites are demolished,” Bialczak said. “There’s lots of dirt everywhere, dirt covering things that used to be operational missile stuff. And so it was just walk on-site, and then off the site we went.”

A few days after the inspections, 16 more launch facilities had been completely demolished, according to Malmstrom officials. Those sites must remain undisturbed for 60 days and then they are removed from the U.S. launcher count under New START.

Russia may send another inspection team to Malmstrom within the first 30 days of this window to look at those 16 sites, expediting the removal of these launchers. Otherwise, the sites won’t be cleared from accountability until June.

The Air Force announced earlier this month that it plans to remove missiles from 50 ICBM silos across the missile fields at Malmstrom, F.E. Warren in Wyoming and Minot in North Dakota. Those empty silos will remain operational and allow the Air Force to complete repairs and rotate missiles throughout the three ICBM wings.

Once the launch facilities are eliminated, the land will be available for purchase. Adjacent landowners will have the first right to purchase the land at fair market value in accordance with United States code. The land will then be offered to federal, state and local government agencies for their use. The final option for disposing the land is through public auction.