 Our nation's nuclear deterrent capability is deployed in what is called the strategic triad. 15th Air Force operates two of the elements of that force. 82% of SAAC's intercontinental ballistic missiles and 40% of the manned bomber tanker force. In addition, 15th operates the entire manned strategic reconnaissance force. In this look at our 15th Air Force heritage, we're going to examine the most formidable of weapon systems, the ICBM. From a beginning greeted with as much skepticism as our early flying machines faced, ICBMs have quickly evolved into the highly sophisticated and reliable systems we see today. The story is an interesting one, one which I hope will help you better appreciate where we are today and where we're going by understanding how and why we got here. The British people were breathing easier this June day. Britain had survived the blitz. The German Luftwaffe was now ineffective as a strategic bombing force. Six days before, the most massive invasion force in history had stormed the Normandy coast, signaling the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler's third right. But today, a new threat from the sky would invade the British comm. June 12 would mark the opening round of Hitler's flying bomb offensive, designed to create civilian panic, and strategic warfare would never be the same again. Manufactured for a mere $750 each, the V1 flying bomb actually was a pulse jet-powered pilotless plane with an 1,870-pound warhead. In less than three months, over 8,000 V1s were launched against English cities. They would cost Britain over $40 million in industrial and residential damage and thousands of civilian casualties. Later in 1944, in a desperate effort to stave off crushing defeat, Hitler would unleash a second terror weapon, the V2, a non-air-breathing ballistic missile with a speed of 3,400 miles an hour, capable of striking London from launch sites in Holland. Over 3,700 of these were fired at England and at Allied supply bases in France and Belgium between September 1944 and April 1945. Earlier, German military scientists had successfully fired a solid-fuel rocket from a submerged submarine. Now, plans were laid to have U-boats tow V2 missiles into positions off the U.S. coasts and fire them at our coastal cities from special canisters. The V2 culminated a German rocket redevelopment program begun in 1935 and based on the rocket concepts and experiments pioneered by this man, Professor Robert H. Goddard, born in Massachusetts, profit without honor in his own country. In 1926, Goddard's ideas took shape with history's first liquid-fueled rocket launch. In 1930, he fired a rocket to a height of 2,000 feet. By the mid-30s, however, his pioneer work had still attracted little interest in pre-war America. But his achievements found eager disciples in Germany and, as would later be revealed, in the Soviet Union. In May 1940, with Hitler on the march in Europe, Dr. Goddard offered all of his research data, patents, and facilities for use by the U.S. military services. The result, 18 months before Pearl Harbor, was only mild interest in the possible use of rockets to assist in aircraft takeoffs. Unrecognized and unheralded, Robert H. Goddard died on August 10, 1945, two days after VJ Day. Ironically, the rocket weapon his genius had inspired, the German V-2, was brought to the United States and became the centerpiece of an American missile program. Shortly after the war, the Army began a large-scale testing program at White Sands, New Mexico, using 100 partially completed V-2 missiles. Experience gained here led to the Army's Jupiter program, the Navy's Polaris, and the Air Force's first efforts poured a long-range surface-to-surface missile. First proposed in 1946, the subsonic air-breathing snark was designed for a range of 1,500 to 5,500 miles, with a top altitude of 50,000 feet. It was launched by two solid fuel rocket boosters and propelled by a single turbojet engine. Snark survived the 1947 cutback in military funding and filled the gap until a true ICBM was operational. Reverting to a peacetime economy, post-war America had little time nor money for military projects, but 1948 brought ominous rumblings. The Russian challenge in Berlin was met by a massive airlift that broke the blockade. Czechoslovakia fell to Soviet domination, aided by nuclear know-how stolen from the West and by captive German nuclear physicists. The Soviets detonated their first atomic device in 1949. That same year, at White Sands, the first two-stage liquid-fueled ballistic missile was launched. It combined a first stage V-2 and a second stage of American design and reached a record altitude of nearly 250 miles. In 1951, the Korean War was in its seventh month when headquarters USAF directed air material command to establish Project Atlas. A stated requirement calls for a rocket-powered guided missile in both ballistic and glide modes, with a 5,000-mile range, speed over the target of Mach 6, accuracy within 1,500 feet, and atomic warhead capability. Missile technology so far had been hampered by problems in propulsion, guidance, and nose cone reentry, compounded by the heavy weight in relatively low yield of available atomic warheads. Now solutions began to take shape, resolving basic issues of missile design. The blunt nose cone proved superior to the earlier spear-like design. Low-thrust rocket engines were added to the second stage to control nose cone trajectory. The simpler, more familiar radio-inertial system of guidance was chosen over a more sophisticated all-inertial system. Hydrogen bomb tests in 1951 and 1952 produced a major breakthrough in warhead size and yield that radically changed the whole picture. The results changed the original Atlas missile configuration and made possible fundamental alterations in missile capabilities. America's thermonuclear lead was short-lived. By August 1953, within five months of Stalin's death, the Soviets had detonated their first hydrogen bomb. The American Atlas project, laboring under a 10-year development plan, was spurred by new scientific and military studies calling for an Air Force intercontinental ballistic missile system within six years. In September 1955, President Eisenhower assigned the highest national priority to ICBM development. But in August 1957, the Soviets announced successful launch of their first ICBM. And two months later, the world was awed by Sputnik as the Soviet Union grabbed the lead in space. By this time, Atlas had become the largest military development program in U.S. history. Its first successful launch came in December 1957. The missile was stored in an above-ground concrete shelter and erected to launch position after fueling. There was a new urgency now in the wake of the unexpected Soviet accomplishments. The Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile, given its own high priority, had undergone successful launch with an all-inertial guidance system. Plans for Thor included 120 missiles to be deployed to the United Kingdom by July 1959. Early in 1958, the Department of Defense approved a new program calling for mass production of a simple, efficient, highly-survivable ICBM weapon system. Minuteman was born. Meanwhile, Titan I, a two-stage liquid-fueled rocket-powered ICBM using both radio and all-inertial guidance, was successfully launched in February 1959, less than four years from the date of original contract. It utilized a hard silo lift launcher. 15th Air Force was 15 years old when, late in 1959, it gained its first missiles, the Atlas-D complexes at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. On July 1st, 1959, the 13th Air Division was activated at Warren to provide the single manager system already familiar to aircraft units. Also activated that year was the Air Force's first missile maintenance squadron, the 706th at Warren. January 1960 found crews from Warren beginning training on the Atlas-D at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Their training was climaxed by a successful first-effort firing on April 22nd. Also in January 1960, the command became involved in another ICBM program. Minuteman was assigned to 15th, with three squadrons announced from Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana. And by June, the first mobile squadron was announced for Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Operation Big Star tested the concept of a mobile missile force employing railroad car launchers. Four trial runs on a 200-mile closed track were conducted from Hill. The idea proved feasible, but was considered too costly compared with the Syro system, and it was canceled. 20 years later, the mobile concept was resurrected in the MX. The first ICBMs were declared combat-ready on September 2nd, 1960, as the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron located at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base. 1961. An infamous wall rose in East Berlin, and the West was challenged again. President Kennedy declared an emergency, and thousands of reservists were recalled to active duty. By mid-year, 15th Air Force numbered 13 Atlas units, two Titan II squadrons at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, and a growing number of Minuteman units, and commanded over 75 percent of SAAC's missile force. In January 1962, a separate wing was activated at Davis-Monthan for the Titan II, the largest most powerful missile developed by the United States. It featured more powerful engines, a first stage of 430,000 pounds thrust, and a second stage of 100,000 pounds thrust. A larger warhead, all inertial guidance, hypergolic fuel enabling extended alert periods, self-contained oxidizer, launchable from hardened dispersed underground silos. Each silo was connected to an underground launch control capsule, and was manned by a combat crew of four. The Titan IIs were operational at Davis-Monthan by the end of 1963. Each squadron had 45 crews. With the introduction of the Minuteman in 1961, reaction time had been substantially reduced, and survivability was greatly enhanced. In contrast to Titan II, Minuteman was a smaller, three-stage solid-repellent ICBM using all inertial guidance. Its range was approximately 7,000 miles. In startling comparison with the 17 crew members required for the first Atlas-Ds, the early Minuteman system needed but a single two-officer crew for each 10 missiles. Soon, the Minuteman II incorporated a new, larger second stage, improved guidance, greater range and payload capacity, and further increased survivability. To prepare for emplacement of the new model, it was necessary to completely retrofit the original Minuteman I launch facilities, launch control facilities, and associated ground equipment. With the addition of the reactivated 564th Strategic Missile Squadron in April 1967, 15th Air Force was assigned 700 of the 1,000 Minuteman launch sites in SAC. Ultimately, the command gained yet another 150 for a total of 850 of the 1,000 Minuteman missiles. By spring of 1967, significant progress had been made on development of a third model Minuteman, with an improved third stage, more penetration aids to counter an anti-missile defense system, and capability to carry up to three independently targetable warheads. On April 17, 1970, an important milestone was reached when the first Minuteman III was emplaced in a silo of the 741st Strategic Missile Squadron, Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Eight months later, the 741st became SAC's first operational Minuteman III unit. By July 1975, the Minuteman ICBM Force stood at 452 models and 553 models. A number of modification programs were in progress, aimed at increasing both the survivability and flexibility of the SAC ICBMs. Among them, the upgrade silo program for increased hardness against enemy attack, and command data buffer, providing for the rapid remote retargeting of Minuteman ICBMs. 15th Air Force crews distinguished themselves throughout the missile test launch program that began back in April 1960 with the Atlas D. In March 1962, a crew from the 389th Strategic Missile Wing at Francis E. Warren successfully fired an Atlas D before an audience that included President John F. Kennedy. Seven months later, the Cuban Missile Crisis triggers confrontation with the Soviet Union. During that year, another Warren crew demonstrated for the first time multiple countdown and launch procedures. Crews from Davis Month and launched six of the 19 shots in the Titan II operational test series between March 1965 and March 1966. Crews from Malmstrom fired 27 Minuteman I's from summer 1963 to fall 1964. Two Minuteman II's were fired for sighting in space by Gemini V astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad during their epic eight-day flight. Crews from Ellsworth Air Force Base South Dakota carried on for 15th with 18 operational test launches of Minuteman I's between February 1964 and July of 1965. They were joined by units from Minot Air Force Base North Dakota to complete most of the 60 shots in a two-year follow-on test program. On January 25, 1968, an airborne missile crew from the 44th Strategic Missile Wing at Ellsworth took part in Operation Olympic Trials 7. Aboard an EC-135 aircraft, they sent the enabling signal to launch a Minuteman ICBM. It was a successful test of the airborne launch control system, an innovation of the command control communications which ensured execution of a validated war order of retaliation against an aggressor. Throughout the 1970s, the missiles of the 15th Air Force stood strategic alert far underground, an unseen force for nuclear deterrence in an increasingly dangerous world. In 1973, war broke out again in the Middle East. President Nixon in a move to counter Soviet threats of intervention placed US forces on worldwide alert. 15th Air Force missile crews joined in an increased state of readiness. As 15th Air Force enters the decade of the 80s, the Soviets are engaged in the most massive peacetime buildup of military force in history and show fresh evidence of willingness to use that force to gain their end. The message is clear. As the leading edge of the nations and the free world's strategic defenses, SAC's responsibility has no respite. There is no leeway for letdown, no room for relaxation. In this context of constant alert, 15th Air Force continues to play a dual role in the strategy of deterrence. Surely now the motto of 15th Air Force, born in World War II, is completely fitting for its Minuteman and Titan Missileers of the 1980s, aggressive in war, alert in peace.