Colorado and U.S. WMD Facts (Archived, 2003)

This page is an archived historical document from ColoradoPeace, revised July 28, 2003. It is preserved for reference only. The figures, programs, and plans described below reflect the sources cited at that time and should not be read as current information.

Minuteman Missiles in Colorado and the U.S. Arsenal

The archived page presented a series of cited “facts” about land-based nuclear forces, drawn largely from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and other published sources. The material described the Minuteman III force as it stood in 2003.

• According to the page, 49 nuclear-armed Minuteman III missiles were located in five clusters, or flights, of unmanned underground silos on the plains of northeastern Colorado.
• The page stated that 150 nuclear-armed missiles were commanded from F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with silos in northeastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming, and southwestern Nebraska.
• It reported 500 active Minuteman missiles in the U.S. land-based ICBM arsenal, distributed among Colorado (49), Wyoming (19), Nebraska (82), Montana (200), and North Dakota (150), with 107 additional missiles held as inactive spares.
• The page described all 500 Minuteman III missiles as remaining on very high alert, above 98 percent, a status it said had persisted for decades.
• It stated that launch could occur in under four minutes after a presidential order, executed by two missileers in each flight’s underground launch control center, typically overseeing 10 to 11 silos.

Warheads and Planned Changes

The archived text described each Minuteman III as carrying one to three nuclear warheads. It said MX Peacekeeper missiles, each with ten W87 warheads, were being decommissioned with completion expected by 2005. It further reported that Minuteman III missiles under Warren AFB command were being converted to a single W62 warhead of 170 kilotons, to be complete by 2007, while 200 missiles in Montana and North Dakota would receive W87 warheads of 300 kilotons taken from decommissioned Peacekeepers. Others, it said, carried the 335 kiloton W78 warhead.

The page noted that each W87 warhead was described as roughly 20 times the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb of 1945. It also reported a $6 billion upgrade program to improve accuracy and extend service life beyond 2020, alongside Air Force plans to begin studying a Minuteman IV.

Global and U.S. Stockpiles

Citing 2002 figures, the page stated that the five major nuclear powers held more than 20,000 warheads, with 10,600 in the U.S. arsenal and 8,000 active or operational. It noted other estimates of 28,800 intact warheads held by the U.S. and Russia, and up to 30,000 including all nations. It described U.S. active warheads as deployed with 1,600 ICBMs, 2,880 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 1,660 strategic bombers, and 1,120 dispersed non-strategic forces.

References Cited at the Time

The page listed Norris and Kristensen in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (2002 and 2003), the Center for Defense Information, Samuel H. Day Jr.’s Nuclear Heartland, and William Sulzman of Citizens for Peace in Outer Space. These citations are reproduced here as part of the historical record; the page’s revision date of July 28, 2003 marks the limit of its information.