These photos were taken at the Titan Missile Museum located about 20 miles south of Tucson
at Suhuarita, Arizona.  This ICBM silo complex is reportedly the only one which was not destroyed when the cold war ended.  Both the missile and silo doors have been disabled in accordance with international treaty, verifiable by satellite photography.  The silo is approximately 164 feet deep.  All equipment and systems were underground with the exception of the refueling stations, concrete silo doors, radio antennas and site security equipment.  Sue and I visited the museum as part of a tour of the PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM PIMA AIR and the AMARC (Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Center) AMARC , a military aircraft storage facility. To view photos of some of the aircraft at the PIMA AIR & SPACE Museum and the AMARC storage facility click here.
 

Silo doors in the partially open position.  The two rows of gray concrete blocks to the left of the doors
serve to satisfy treaty requirements by stopping the doors from being opened completely.  The silver tank
above the door assembly is an oxidizer tank truck used for refueling the Titan missile.  The missile inside the
silo has been disabled by cutting holes through the sides of  the stage one & two fuel tanks.  This was
done with the missile lying on the surface of the ground, facing skyward in order to be satellite verifiable.
 
 

Blast-proof airlock doors at the bottom of the entry stairwell, approximately 40 feet
underground, were used for personnel isolation and verification during shift change.  The concrete
visible on the floor between the yellow and black hazard tape illustrates the thickness of the
blast-proof walls of 4-foot thick reinforced concrete with 2 1/2 inch rebar on 9 inch centers.
 

Missile launch control room.  Note that the middle rack-mount panel on the back
wall (upper left) is early 60's vintage equipment to receive fax transmissions (receive
only).  The large spring assembly, in the center of the photo beyond our tour guide,
is one of several that support the control room and completely isolate the facility
from any movement of the surrounding earth, such as would occur during an attack.
 

Missile launch control panel.  Note the single TV security monitor (in the upper
portion of this photo) for the one security camera located in the entry stairwell.
 

This is the tunnel between the control room and the missile silo.  It is not isolated from
the surrounding earth; however, all of the piping and conduits running between
the control room and the missile silo are carried by an overhead inverted U shaped
assembly which is isolated by a series of spring canisters lining each side of the tunnel.
 

This shows a mock refueling of the second stage of the Titan missile. The walls
of the silo are of eight-foot thick reinforced concrete.
 

This view is looking farther down into the silo toward the first stage of the missile.
 Note the grating assembly on the far side of the silo.  A series of these assemblies
is at each level of the silo and could be swung  into place to service the missile.
 

This is the top of the second stage of the missile, with the warhead mounted on top.  The
warhead was designed to be deployed at an altitude of approximately 500 miles.  The
sound-absorbing panels mounted on the inside of the silo were required to prevent the
sound waves generated during launch from destroying the missile. In addition, a
large volume of water was to be injected into the silo during launch to provide cooling.
 

Titan missile and warhead on display at the Pima Air Museum.
 
 
 

Just think, the Wright Brothers made their first successful flight in 1903,
and just 60 years later, the Titan Missile based ICBM system was put in
place and then decommissioned by international treaty in the early 1980's
as the cold war was coming to an end.