INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILIES
INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILIES
What is an icbm?
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.
Hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) wait in underground silos ready to be launched at a moment’s notice. Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming, where the missiles are located, were nicknamed the “nuclear sponge” by nuclear war planners who intended the missile fields to “absorb” a Russian ICBM strike.
These weapons make it all too easy to start a nuclear war with a moment’s notice.
Once launched, ICBMs cannot be recalled, and there are multiple documented cases where a launch order was almost carried out in response to a false alarm.
In the words of the late Daniel Ellsberg, “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.”
Currently, 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.
(each ICBM has 1-3)
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.
ICBMs Explained
- 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)
Photos from Monthly ICBM Protests at Vandenberg SFB
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.
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ICBM Rally Signs (18x12) and Flyers (8.5x11)
Map of U.S. Nuclear Sites
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