AFA will lose its Cold War missile

An icon of the Cold War will disappear from the Air Force Academy this week when an intercontinental ballistic missile on display for nearly the past four decades is torn down.

A Minuteman III missile that has stood proudly near Clune Arena on the campus has rusted its way through too many Colorado winters and is in danger of collapsing. The aluminum and steel structure is just the shell of the weapon and lacks solidfuel rocket motors and cityleveling warheads.

"We're going to miss it," academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker said. "The old cold warrior has been a landmark here for 37 years."

The Minuteman III remains the centerpiece of the nation's fleet of nucleartipped missiles. Stored in underground silos in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota, the missiles can carry up to three nuclear warheads, each of which can destroy a city the size of Denver.

First fielded in 1970, the missiles ended their construction run in 1978, but have been upgraded considerably since, with new guidance systems and upgraded rocket motors. The 40-ton Minuteman can rocket into orbit at 15,000 mph to hit targets up to 6,000 miles away.

The problem with the academy's Minuteman, which made it the nation's only ICBM-armed campus, is that the missiles are designed to be stored in bomb-proof underground silos.

"They were never designed to be displayed outdoors for three decades," Whitaker said.

Air Force officials haven't taken the skin off the missile to assess corrosion, but problems have been found with other display missiles nationwide.

"In the instance of the academy display, it is very likely that significant concealed internal corrosion exists inside the missile shell," Terry Aitken, with the National Museum of the Air Force, said in a statement.

The 60-foot-tall Minuteman skin was moved to the academy and the display was dedicated Dec. 9, 1971, 18 years before the Berlin Wall fell. It was placed at the field house to inspire cadets to seek careers in the ICBM field and served its role well. The academy said 115 graduates are now serving with strategic missile forces.

Academy officials resisted tearing the display missile down and considered restoring it and moving it to a site near the north gate of the campus.

But the missile, which has been treated with anti-fungal paint and has a nose cone made from exotic metals, including the mildly radioactive element thorium, poses hazardous waste challenges on top of its structural troubles.

Whitaker said that the missile will be torn down and that the nonhazardous parts of its carcass will be cut up and sold for scrap.

There is still plenty of history on display at the academy, including a Vietnam-era B-52 bomber, which could have been used to deliver a nuclear strike. But people wanting to see an ICBM will now have to drive a bit.

F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., has an extensive display of missiles near its main gate off Interstate 25.

Peterson Air Force Base does have a nuclear-capable missile on display at its museum.

The IM-99 Bomarc missile was an anti-aircraft weapon deployed early in the Cold War. Because guidance systems of the 1950s weren't that accurate, the Bomarc could carry a small nuclear weapon to dispatch fleets of Soviet bombers.