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MX Missile, Shelter, Launch Methods Undergo Testing
An experimental vertical shelter for the deployment of MX missiles
was constructed at the Test Site. If the design had been adopted, the
missile would have been placed in an 18-foot diameter, 130-foot-deep
vertical silo. At launch the silo would have cut through a 40-foot layer
of soil. The missile would then have been fired. Pan Am photo.
The Nevada Test Site was selected for several Air Force Peacekeeper (MX)
research and testing experiments from 1978 through 1982.
U.S. Air Force, Westinghouse, Martin Marietta, Thiokol, EG&G Energy
Measurements, Inc. (EG&G), Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co., Inc. (REECo),
and DOE employees worked on the project in the Area 25.
 One
of the first MX projects was the Vertical Shelter Ground System
Definition Program which required REECo to build an 18-foot diameter,
130-foot deep vertical silo for missile loading and egress (exit) tests.
The egress mechanism was built to thrust a 348,000-pound simulated
missile and canister out of the silo to a height of 40 feet above ground
after it burst through a layer of soil weighing 50,000 pounds.
In other experiments, an extensive network of experimental roads was
built to evaluate construction methods in native desert soils.
Scientists needed to make sure the roads would accommodate the heavy
loads associated with transporting 200 MX missiles among 4,600 shelters.
These tests were part of the Multiple Protective Shelter System (more
commonly referred to as the "shell game system" or "race track model."
When the Carter administration decided to use the horizontal shelter
basing mode, an extensive program was started to develop this design.
The R.M. Parsons Company, proposed "precast" construction and the R.A.
Hanson Company proposed a "cast-in-place" method.
The shelter segments used about 220 yards of concrete per segment and
weighed between 240 and 300 tons each. Studies into this basing mode
were canceled by the Reagan administration in October 1981.
Another extensive experiment was the MX Canister Assembly Launch Test
Program (CALTP) designed to test MX missile launch parameters. This
program required extensive rehabilitation and modification to the
research and development facilities in Area 25.
Construction to support the tests involved building a 125-foot
assembly and launch tower, camera towers, auxiliary test pads for gas
generator tests and missile component handling, and installation of a
200-ton, stiff-leg crane to support the project operations.
The first of five launches in January 1982 was witnessed by 60
distinguished guests. A 71-foot-long, 92-inch-diameter, 195,000-pound
missile, without propellants, was thrust more than 300 feet into the air
at a 5-degree angle and nearly 100 feet down range into a large earthen
pit.
In 1983 REECo miners, used a 256-ton tunnel boring machine to drill a
750-foot tunnel into Little Skull Mountain as part of the project. The
tunnel was later used by the Air Force to investigate equipment and
methods for post-attack "dig-out" from underground missile complexes.
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