Minuteman Missile Silo Construction
Workers preparing to install a reinforced steel silo liner inside Minuteman silo B-11 at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, June 18, 1962
Unlike earlier aboveground ICBM facilities, all 1,000 Minuteman silos were designed to survive anything but a direct hit. Inserted into each silo was a 62 foot (18.9 meter) reinforced steel liner that was subsequently covered by poured concrete, forming the external silo wall. The missiles were then inserted into the liner and the silos covered by a heavy steel and concrete door.
Lowering the liner into the silo
Workers installing reinforcing steel around a launch control capsule at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, November 1961
The large tube protruding from the capsule (partially obscured by the crane) is the crew escape hatch (to which another tube leading to the surface would later be attached). The large white tower at the opposite end of the capsule is an elevator shaft.
An aerial view of a launch control capsule at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, July 1962
Once completed, the capsules were buried and a blockhouse constructed atop the site, housing crew quarters and support equipment. Beginning in the late 1960s at Minuteman sites in Missouri, North Dakota, and Wyoming, this vital equipment was moved underground into hardened capsules adjacent to the LCCs. Each LCC controls a flight of ten Minuteman ICBMs and is manned 24 hours a day by a two-person Air Force crew.
Workers put the finishing touches on a launch control capsule at Ellsworth Air Force Base, September 1962
After being covered with layers of reinforcing steel, concrete was poured over the capsule to provide further strength. Each LCC is 59 feet (18 meters) long and 29 feet (8.8 meters) in diameter. The outer wall is 4 feet (1.2 meters) thick. Suspended inside the capsule is a box approximately 12 feet (3.7 meters) high by 28 feet (8.5 meters) long housing the equipment used by the crew to monitor and launch the missiles.
The blast door to the Delta 1 LCC, Ellsworth Air Force Base