INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILIES
INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILIES
An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a land-based nuclear weapon. U.S. ICBMs are stored in underground silos across the Great Plains. Once launched, even by accident, they cannot be recalled. ICBMs are one leg of the nuclear triad.
These weapons make it all too easy to start a nuclear war with a moment’s notice.
The United States has spent nearly a century prioritizing arms racing over healthcare, education, housing, and every other possible priority, keeping the world constantly on the brink of self-destruction. It is time to eliminate these weapons and build a better world beyond the threat of ICBMs.
Want to learn how you can protest the next ICBM test launch in-person
in California?
It's time to eliminate ICBMs
- The U.S. has at least 400 deployed ICBMs. Each warhead has a maximum explosive power of 335 Kilotons and each ICBM can hold up to 3 warheads (The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was equivalent to about 15 kilotons). Nicknamed the "nuclear sponge", ICBMs are located in underground silos in Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and Colorado. ICBM tests are launched from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California.
- ICBMs are a threat to everyone–including those they’re supposed to defend. These weapons make it all too easy to start a nuclear war with a moment’s notice. Once launched, they cannot be recalled, which puts extra pressure on the President to order a strike. There are multiple documented cases where a launch order was almost carried out in response to a false alarm.
- ICBMs are sold to the American public as a jobs program, but the numbers just don’t add up. Northrop Grumman promised 10,000 jobs from the program. But research shows that healthcare, non-fossil fuel energy, infrastructure, and education are all more effective at creating jobs given comparable levels of government investment. (Source)
- According to experts, including former generals, ICBMs are unnecessary. ICBMs are an unnecessary part of the nuclear triad. Compared to SLBM and SLCM-armed submarines which are virtually undetectable, land-based ICBMs are sitting ducks that make the U.S. more vulnerable to a nuclear attack, not less. (Source)
- The U.S. is on-track to “modernize”--replace–its ICBM force with new, Sentinel missiles. The program was initially estimated to cost nearly $300 billion, but the Air Force just announced that costs will be 37% higher than estimated, adding over $100 billion to the final price tag.
Once launched, ICBMs cannot be recalled.
SIgn up to get alerts and information on how to protest the next ICBM test launch in California with us.
The United States tests their ICBM capabilities from Vandenberg Space Force Base, along the coast in California. By international law, the U.S. informs the world of the tests at least 3 days in advance. Activists from Northern and Southern California convene, by car and by bus, at Vandenberg to protest quarterly test launches. Sign-up below to get more information and to receive alerts when an ICBM test has been announced.
“The chance that this system could explode ‘by mistake’ or unauthorized action in a crisis—as well as by the deliberate execution of nuclear threats—taking much of the world with it, has always been an unconscionable risk imposed by the superpowers upon the population of the world.”
– Daniel Elsberg
Photos from ICBM Protests at Vandenberg Space Force Base
To connect with organizers and learn more about monthly ICBM protests at Vandenberg Space Force Base, reach out to Ryan (at) RootsAction.org. Search and print signs on our print resources page.
Map of U.S. ICBM silo positions
Help build a movement to prevent nuclear war
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Defuse Nuclear War is a joint endeavor of RootsAction.org and the RootsAction Education Fund.