Minuteman III missile

03.11.2023

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WHY IN NEWS?

Recently, the Pentagon (the USA's Department of Defence) announced the latest test of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile to "showcase" its nuclear capability.

About

• The LGM-30 Minuteman is an American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
• ICBM, is an element of the nation's strategic deterrent forces under the control of the Air Force Global Strike Command.

Name

• The "L" in LGM is the Department of Defense designation for silo-launched; "G" means surface attack; "M" stands for guided missile, the 30 stands for the Minuteman series of missiles and the G after “30” is the current Minuteman III.

Features

• The Minuteman is a strategic weapon system using a ballistic missile of intercontinental range.
• Missiles are dispersed in hardened silos to protect against attack and connected to an underground launch control center through a system of hardened cables. Launch crews, consisting of two officers, perform around-the-clock alerts in the launch control center.
• It is a three-stage, solid-fuel missile.
• Its length is 18.2 meters, and its diameter is 1.85 meters.
• Its range is 6,000-plus miles, and its maximum range is about 8,000 miles.
• Boeing Corporation designed and manufactured this missile.
• The current ICBM force consists of 400 Minuteman III missiles.
• It is currently the only land-based ICBM in the US nuclear arsenal, which also includes Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons carried by strategic bomber aircraft.

Advantages of the Minuteman III

• It has several advantages that make it a critical component of the United States’ defense strategy.

○It is highly reliable, with a long history of successful launches and missions.

○ It is capable of delivering multiple warheads to different targets, making it an effective deterrent against potential adversaries.

○Its ground-launched nature makes it more secure and less susceptible to attack than other forms of delivery systems.

Background

• The Minuteman weapon system was conceived in the late 1950s and Minuteman I was deployed in the early 1960s.
• Minuteman was a revolutionary concept and an extraordinary technical achievement.
• Both the missile and basing components incorporated significant advances beyond the relatively slow-reacting, liquid-fueled, remotely-controlled ICBMs of the previous generation.
• From the beginning, Minuteman missiles have provided a quick-reacting, inertially guided, highly survivable component to America's strategic deterrent program.
• Minuteman's maintenance concept capitalizes on high reliability and a "remove and replace" approach to achieve a near 100 percent alert rate.
• Through state-of-the-art improvements, the Minuteman system has evolved to meet new challenges and assume new missions.
• Modernization programs have resulted in new versions of the missile, expanded targeting options, and improved accuracy and survivability. Today's Minuteman weapon system is the product of almost 60 years of continuous enhancement.
• The current ICBM force consists of 400 Minuteman III missiles.

An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)

• It is a missile with a minimum range of 5,500 kilometres primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery.
• Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons can also be delivered with varying effectiveness, but have never been deployed on ICBMs.
• Countries that have ICBMs: India, Russia, the United States, North Korea, China, Israel, the United Kingdom and France.
• ICBMs are differentiated by having greater range and speed than other ballistic missiles.
• Short and medium-range ballistic missiles are known collectively as the theater ballistic missiles.

 Source:The Times of India