Peacekeeper Officially Deactivated, Marks End Of Reagan's Missile System

[Ryan Ruck]

Peacekeeper Officially Deactivated, Marks End Of Reagan's Missile System

CHEYENNE - The Peacekeeper nuclear missile, credited by some with helping with the demise of the Soviet Union and winning the Cold War, is to be officially deactivated.

F.E. Warren Air Force Base here oversaw the only squadron of 50 Peacekeepers deployed in the United States. Each 71-foot-tall, 8-foot-diameter missile, deployed in the 1980s, carried 10 warheads.

Almost 15 years after the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, the last Peacekeeper, also known as the MX, has been removed from its hardened silo. A ceremony was scheduled Monday at F.E. Warren to mark the deactivation of the missile.

In 2002 the first Peacekeeper was deactivated after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified to the House Armed Services Committee that he and the Air Force felt the missile no longer was necessary. The missiles were taken out, one by one, stage by stage, and retired.

When the missiles first came to Wyoming, the United States was in the throes of the Cold War. The Soviet Union had been building up its nuclear arsenal, and the United States felt it needed an added form of deterrence.

President Ronald Reagan began pushing Congress to fund the biggest, most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile system the world ever had seen. Officially it was known as the MX, but he called it the Peacekeeper.

Unlike some other states, Wyoming welcomed the deployment of the missile.

Phil Roberts, associate professor of history at the University of Wyoming, said there was a different attitude here toward nuclear missiles.

After living with the Atlas, Minuteman I and Minuteman III, having a new missile system was nothing new for Wyoming.

"It was not such a big deal," Roberts said.

But it still faced opposition in Wyoming.

Lindi Kirkbride, of Cheyenne, fought against the Peacekeeper for years, arguing it posed a threat to people who had to live with them in their back yards.

She said she doesn't doubt the missiles served their role as a deterrent during the Cold War, but she is not willing to say they are the reason the Soviet Union collapsed.

But others say the missile did what it was supposed to do - deter all-out nuclear war.

"It served its mission; it won the Cold War," said David Robblee, a civilian who has worked on almost every missile system the United States has seen in the last 40 years.

After the Peacekeeper is deactivated, he will retire.

[Ryan Ruck]

US Completes Deactivation Of Peacekeeper ICBMs

United Nations (AFP) Oct 03, 2005
The United States announced Monday that it had completed the deactivation of its entire force of 50 Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), each capable of carrying 10 nuclear warheads.

"This latest step implementing President (George W.) Bush's policy of reducing reliance on nuclear weapons provides fresh evidence of the fulfillment by the United States of its obligations" under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, said US acting Assistant Secretary of State for non-proliferation Stephen Rademaker.

Rademaker told a disarmament committee of the UN General Assembly here that the deactivation of the Peacekeeper force was completed on September 19.

"Just three years ago, this missile force comprised 50 ICBMs, each capable of carrying 10 nuclear warheads," he said. "All now have been taken out of service, consistent with our obligations under the Moscow Treaty of 2002."

Under the 2002 treaty, Washington and Moscow agreed to cut and limit strategic nuclear warheads so that by December 31, 2012 the aggregate number of such warheads does not exceed 1,700-2,200 for each party.

Each side was to determine for itself the makeup and structure of its strategic offensive arms, based on the established aggregate limit for the number of such warheads.

Rademaker said empty Peacekeeper silos would remain accountable under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed by the two countries in 1991 and would be subject to inspection.

The issue of disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation was one of the major disappointments at the summit of world leaders here last month. It did not even figure in the summit's document on wide-ranging UN reforms as UN member states failed to find common ground for the second time since May, when a review conference on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty collapsed.

Nuclear states have sought to focus on non-proliferation while the nuclear have-nots are pressing for disarmament and are accusing the big powers, particularly the United States, of failing to meet their disarmament obligations.