150 Minuteman III Missiles Go for Upgrades in Wyoming

June 23, 2002
By Tech. Sgt. Melissa Phillips

Warren’s 150 Minuteman III missiles were placed on PRP Thursday. Unlike the other well-known military acronym standing for the Personnel Reliability Program, the missiles are currently undergoing the Propulsion Replacement Program.

Although the two programs are extremely different, both have one thing in common - they ensure Air Force resources remain reliable and ready to perform the mission. One validates military members medical and mental well-being to work on missiles, aircraft and other high-priority resources, and the other updates the aging missile.

Thursday, missile maintainers from the 90th Logistics Group installed the first downstage under PRP into a silo near Stoneham, Colo. The downstage is considered the three bottom portions of the 59.9-foot intercontinental ballistic missile. Encased inside the downstage is new propellant, a solid fuel that projects the missile from the hardened silo, or launch facility, to a specified target up to its maximum range of 6,000-plus miles.

Necessary upgrades: Can you imagine what would happen if you didn’t change your vehicle’s oil for 30 years?

The Minuteman III was conceived in the late 1960s, and Warren started operating the weapon system in 1973. Although you couldn’t tell by looking at the missile’s shell, which hasn’t been replaced, the first missile installed under PRP is brand spanking new inside.

“Due to aging components and the birth of new technology, it’s necessary to periodically fine tune the missiles’ systems, and give it a figurative facelift by replacing body parts,” said Capt. Jeffrey Pruss, 90th Logistics Support Squadron Operations Flight commander, whose flight schedules maintenance on the missiles and acts as the liaison between the maintainers working in the missile field and the 90 LG commander.

“Propellant is an explosive component and over time certain chemicals in its composition begin to break down and cause it to become less effective. PRP is similar to a vehicle owners requirement to change their oil periodically to ensure it continues to perform at full capacity,” Pruss said.

It’s pretty spectacular when you think the missile has been a reliable and safe weapon system for more than 30 years without replacing the propellant before now. Can you imagine what would happen to your car if you didn’t change the oil for that length of time?

“Although it’s the same thing we do day-to-day, it was cool to install it because it’s the first of its kind,” said Senior Airman Roy Lacy, 90th Maintenance Squadron missile handling team member who was one of a team of individuals that installed the downstage. “I knew I was doing something good for my country that will benefit us in the long run, and allows us to remain the world’s strongest nuclear power.”

As a result of United States initiatives to enhance the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and to cancel development programs for new ICBMs and retire the Peacekeeper missile, the MM III will most likely become the only land-based ICBM in the triad. So it’s doubly important to continue to upgrade the system.

“PRP, along with eight other major and minor modernization programs, is designed to ensure the safety, security, reliability and accuracy of the MM III and extend its life beyond 2020,” Pruss said. In April 2001, the “Mighty Ninety” began working on the Guidance Replacement Program, which replaces the missile guidance system. The MGS controls the missile before lift-off and during part of its flight plan until the reentry vehicle, which houses the warhead, is released. The revised MGS upgrades the electronics and the operational software by replacing the 1960s vintage digital computer, amplifier and control electronics that are no longer manufactured.

Maintainers chomping at bit to start PRP “We’re at the beginning of a six-year modification process,” said Chief Master Sgt. William Clark, 90th Logistics Group superintendent who overseas more than 500 maintainers that install and maintain the MM III. “So even though it means a lot of extra work, the troops are chomping at the bit to finally get started.”

When an old missile is sent back to the depot at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, the technicians there churn out a new missile, and send it back to Warren and the other two ICBM bases for installation. Friday, maintainers bolted the downstage, which was installed Thursday, to the three top portions of the missile to include a new MGS. For the maintainers, that means one missile emplacement down and 149 to go.

Preparing the silo to receive the missile is time consuming. PRP and GRP are scheduled to be completed by late 2008, and finishing both programs on time equates to a fast-paced workload and longer hours. Part of the reason for that is PRP allows the maintainers to take care of all the little mechanical deficiencies they couldn’t in the past because of safety considerations with the missile inside the silo. So while the missile is at the depot, they’re busy sprucing up the place. “It would be like placing a new engine in a rusty vehicle if we didn’t. It’s a point of pride, so when we put the missile in everything will be new,” Clark said. In the maintenance world, PRP and GRP melt into a hectic schedule where the average workday is 10 hours or more without any of the simple conveniences most Air Force workers take for granted. None of the silos where maintainers work have toilets, phones or vending machines, and a corner store is normally more than a half an hour drive.

Their offices are the silos or LFs, which are scattered throughout vast rural areas in Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado. LFs are rudimental at best. They’re blasted by the front ranges extreme weather, which subjects the maintainers to blistering heat in the summer and winter brings snow so thick it sometimes takes them a half an hour or more to shovel through to the launch tube door just to begin their workday.

It’s an understatement to say a maintainer’s job isn’t glamorous. However, if you ask the majority of maintainers, it’s a gratifying profession that affords them a good night’s sleep. They know what they do protects the nation.

Warren sustains 44 percent of the United States ICBM arsenal, and it’s the maintainers that keep the missiles operating and ready to launch at a moment’s notice.

Clark and his maintainers don’t subscribe to the theories of those who believe ICBMs aren’t necessary anymore. They know our adversaries may continue to sucker punch us like they did during the Sept. 11 tragedy, but maintaining the missiles will give our enemies pause before they think about pelting America with weapons of mass destruction.

“People should know their tax dollars are being spent wisely to provide nuclear deterrence. These two programs ensure the MM III will continue to remain just as safe and reliable as it was the first day it rolled off the assembly line. Except now, the weapon system is even better,” Clark said.

©The Sentinel 2002
http://www.zwire.com/news/newsstory.cfm?newsid=4538369&title=Minuteman%20III%
20missiles%20go%20on%20PRP%3CBR%3E&BRD=1183&PAG=461&CATNAME=
Top%20Stories&CATEGORYID=410