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The L indicates that the missile is silo-launched; the G indicates that it is designed to attack surface targets; and the M indicates that it is a guided missile.
The name "Minuteman" comes from the Revolutionary War's Minutemen.
The current Minuteman force consists of 500 Minuteman IIIs in missile silos around Warren Air Force Base , Wyoming, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, and Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.
It is a guided missile, with three solid-fuel stages, and in addition, in the post-boost stage ("bus"), a liquid-fuel propulsion system rocket engine used to fine-tune the trajectory of the reentry vehicle and/or dispense individual warheads to separate targets across a broad area. The missile has a gimbalA gimbal is a device using Euler angles to measure rotation of an object in three dimensions. The device is usually a set of two or three rings mounted on axes at right angles so as to allow a compass or a ball to remain suspended in a horizontal plane, rled inertial guidance systemAn inertial navigation system measures the position and attitude of a vehicle by measuring the accelerations and rotations applied to the system's inertial frame. It is widely used because it refers to no real-world item beyond itself. It is therefore imm.
The third stage has precision shutdown ports which, when opened, reduce the chamber pressure so abruptly that the interior flame is blown out. This allows a more precise trajectory which improves targeting accuracy.
The post-boost stage carries, in addition to the warhead(s), penetration aids such as chaffChaff is the seed casings and other inedible plant matter harvested with cereal grains such as wheat. The chaff must be separated from the grain before use, by such techniques as threshing and wind winnowing. The word "Chaff" is also used to refer to some and decoySee Decoy (TV series) for the 1957 television series of this name. A decoy is usually a person, device or event meant as a distraction to conceal what an individual or a group might be looking for. Decoys have been used for centuries most notably in games.
With START IISTART II the "STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty" was signed by George H. Bush and Boris Yeltsin in January 1993, which banned the use of MIRVs. It followed START I. The historic agreement started on June 17, 1992 with the signing of a 'Joint Understanding'’s ban on multiple independently targetable reentry vehicleA multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle or MIRV, is one of a collection of nuclear weapons carried on a single intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or a submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM). Using MIRVs, a single launched missiles (MIRVs) now a dead letter, earlier plans to reduce the number of warheads per missile to one have been revised: the United States is now considering keeping 800 warheads on the Minuteman force.
The missile entered service in 1975Events January January 1 Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up and are sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in jail on February 21 January 5 The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, i, 1998 USAF plans are to operate it until 2025.
The Minuteman I and II were in service from 1960 until 1997.
The Minuteman had two innovations that gave it a long practical service life: a solid rocket booster, and a digital flight computer. This computer was one of the very first recognizably modern embedded systems.
The solid rocket booster made the Minuteman faster to launch than other ICBMs, which used liquid fuels. A crucial innovation in this area was to include a valve to release the booster pressure, and permit effective throttling of the booster.
A reprogrammable inertial guidance system was a major risk in the original program. When first proposed, no one had built a digital computer that would fit in a missile. One program, the SNARK supersonic cruise missile, had already failed to produce such a system.
A digital computer was essential to obtain the accuracy gains that kept this weapon effective throughout the cold war. As the Defense Mapping Agency more accurately mapped mass concentrations in the Earth, the inertial guidance software could be updated and loaded into the missiles to make them ever more accurate by having them compensate for these sources of gravity.
Another gain that persuaded program managers to accept the risk of the computer was that the computer could also be used to test the missile. This saved a large amount of weight in cables and connectors.
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