Titan II ICBM Launch Complex 373-5 Site | |
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Location in Arkansas | |
Nearest city | Center Hill, Arkansas |
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Coordinates | 35°15′34″N91°51′26″W / 35.25944°N 91.85722°W Coordinates: 35°15′34″N91°51′26″W / 35.25944°N 91.85722°W |
Area | 23 acres (9.3 ha) |
Built | 1963 |
Built by | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Parsons, Ralph M. Co. |
MPS | Cold War Resources Associated with the 308th Strategic Missile Wing in Arkansas MPS |
NRHP reference No. | 00000100 [1] |
Added to NRHP | 6 March 2000 |
The Titan II ICBM Launch Complex 373-5 Site is a historic military installation in White County, Arkansas. It is located on private property just northeast of the junction of Arkansas Highways 35 and 320, west of Searcy. The 23-acre (9.3 ha) site has only a few surface-level features remaining, including its access road (off Highway 36) and a helicopter landing pad. Most of the site's surviving features are below ground, including a three-level command complex, but are discernible by the mounding of earth over their remains. The site housed a Titan II missile, and was in service from 1962 until 1986. Its control equipment was then removed, and many of its surface-level features (including the launch portal and main personnel access portal) were demolished and covered with mounded earth. When operational, the site was operated by the 373d Strategic Missile Squadron of the United States Air Force. [2]
The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. [1]
Titan was a family of United States expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. The Titan I and Titan II were part of the US Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet until 1987. The space launch vehicle versions contributed the majority of the 368 Titan launches, including all the Project Gemini crewed flights of the mid-1960s. Titan vehicles were also used to lift US military payloads as well as civilian agency reconnaissance satellites and to send interplanetary scientific probes throughout the Solar System.
Vandenberg Space Force Base, previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from the Western Range, and also performs missile testing. The United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 30 serves as the host delta for the base. In addition to its military space launch mission, Vandenberg Space Force Base also performs space launches for civil and commercial space entities, such as NASA and SpaceX.
The Martin Marietta SM-68A/HGM-25A Titan I was the United States' first multistage intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), in use from 1959 until 1962. Though the SM-68A was operational for only three years, it spawned numerous follow-on models that were a part of the U.S. arsenal and space launch capability. The Titan I was unique among the Titan models in that it used liquid oxygen and RP-1 as propellants; all subsequent versions used storable propellants instead.
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
The Titan II was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the Glenn L. Martin Company from the earlier Titan I missile. Titan II was originally designed and used as an ICBM, but was later adapted as a medium-lift space launch vehicle to carry payloads to Earth orbit for the United States Air Force (USAF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Those payloads included the USAF Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), NOAA weather satellites, and NASA's Gemini crewed space capsules. The modified Titan II SLVs were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, up until 2003.
The Titan Missile Museum, also known as Air Force Facility Missile Site 8 or as Titan II ICBM Site 571-7, is a former ICBM site located about 40 km (25 mi) south of Tucson, Arizona in the United States. It was constructed in 1963 and deactivated in 1984. It is now a museum run by the nonprofit Arizona Aerospace Foundation and includes an inert Titan II missile in the silo, as well as the original launch facilities.
The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is an American national historic site established in 1999 near Wall, South Dakota to illustrate the history and significance of the Cold War, the arms race, and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) development. The site preserves the last intact Minuteman II ICBM system in the United States, in a disarmed and demilitarized status. Guided tours are available of the underground Launch Control Center, and a missile silo can be observed from above. 450 of the newer Minuteman III missiles are still on active duty at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, Minot AFB, North Dakota, and F. E. Warren AFB, Wyoming.
Launch Complex 19 (LC-19) is a deactivated launch site on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida used by NASA to launch all of the Gemini crewed spaceflights. It was also used by uncrewed Titan I and Titan II missiles.
The 308th Armament Systems Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Air Armament Center, stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. It was inactivated on 30 July 2010.
The SM-68 Titan was the designation of two intercontinental ballistic missiles developed for the United States Air Force. The Titan I and Titan II missiles were operational between 1962 and 1987 during the Cold War. These missiles, particularly the Titan II, were the basis of the Titan family of space launch vehicles.
The 373d Strategic Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit that was first established during World War II. After a series of inactivations and reactivations, the squadron was last assigned to the 308th Strategic Missile Wing, stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas.
The 374th Strategic Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 308th Strategic Missile Wing, stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas.
A missile launch facility, also known as an underground missile silo, launch facility (LF), or nuclear silo, is a vertical cylindrical structure constructed underground, for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs). Similar facilities can be used for anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs).
A missile combat crew (MCC), is a team of highly trained specialists, often called missileers, staffing Intermediate Range and Intercontinental ballistic missile systems. In the United States, personnel, officially coded as Nuclear and Missile Operations Officers, of the United States Air Force, operate underground missile systems at launch control centers located throughout the country. There are also a select few missileers that have the chance to become part of a Missile Combat Crew-Airborne (MCC-A) operating the Airborne Launch Control System which provides a survivable launch capability for the Minuteman ICBM force. Crew size varied among the different missile systems, but the number was always greater than one, to abide by USSTRATCOM's two-man rule for positive control of nuclear weapons.
The Damascus Titan missile explosion was a 1980 U.S. nuclear weapons incident involving a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The incident occurred on September 18–19, 1980, at Missile Complex 374-7 in rural Arkansas when a U.S. Air Force LGM-25C Titan II ICBM loaded with a 9 megaton W-53 Nuclear Warhead had a liquid fuel explosion inside its silo. Launch Complex 374-7 was located in Bradley Township, Van Buren County farmland just 3.3 miles (5.3 km) NNE of Damascus, and approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Little Rock.
The Operational Silo Test Facility (OSTF) is a former United States Air Force intercontinental ballistic missile launch facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, United States. It was a developmental launch site for the silo-based Titan and Atlas missile series.
The Titan II ICBM Launch Complex 374-5 Site is a historic military installation in rural Faulkner County, Arkansas. It is located roughly midway between Greenbrier and Conway, on the east side of United States Route 65 about 0.4 miles (0.64 km) north of its junction with East Cadron Ridge Road. It is an underground complex on 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land, featuring a missile silo and launch control facility. Its ground-level access points have been back-filled with rubble or welded shut, and are discernible only by the presence of concrete pads and mounds of earth. Surface features also include the remnants of a helicopter pad and a theodolite siting marker, and the original access road to the facility from US 65. The facility was staffed by the 374th Strategic Missile Squadron between 1963 and 1986, housing an LGM-25C Titan II ICBM, and was decommissioned and rendered non-functional in 1987 under the terms of the SALT II strategic arms treaty.
Springhill is an unincorporated community in Faulkner County, Arkansas, United States. The community is located at the junction of U.S. Route 65 and Arkansas Highway 287, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Greenbrier.
Highway 36 is a state highway in Central Arkansas. The highway begins at U.S. Highway 64 (US 64) at Hamlet and runs east through several small communities to Searcy, where it serves as the Beebe-Capps Expressway, a major crosstown arterial roadway. Following a discontinuity at US 64/US 67/US 167, the highway continues east to Kensett as Wilbur D. Mills Avenue before state maintenance ends at the small community of Georgetown. This highway is maintained by the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT).