Remote Sprint Launch Site 3

USA / North Dakota / Milton / ND State Highway 5
 military, Cold War 1947-1991, closed / former military
Remote Sprint Launch Site #3, a remote site of the Safeguard ABM system designed to protect the Grand Forks ICBM field, housed launch silos for 16 Sprint short-range interceptor missiles; each conical two-stage missile was 27 feet long, accelerated to Mach 10 at 100g, and carried a low-kiloton-range "W66" thermonuclear warhead designed to destroy incoming ICBM warheads at low altitude (within the atmosphere) using neutrons, perhaps only 30 to 60 seconds before they would reach their targets. Ironically, the system was deactivated after only one day due to new ABM limitations of SALT I.

www.srmsc.org/
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(missile)
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   48°45'49"N   97°59'8"W
This article was last modified 11 years ago