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The LG-118A Peacekeeper is a land-based ICBM deployed by the United States starting in 1986. Under the unratified START II treaty, the missile is to be removed from the US nuclear arsenal by 2005, after which the LGM-30 Minuteman will be the only type of land-based ICBM in the US arsenal.
The Peacekeeper is a MIRVed missile: each rocket could carry up to 10 re-entry vehicles, each with a nuclear warhead with the explosive power of up to 300 kilotons (twenty-five times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II). It was designed to replace the Minuteman III, being the first "third-generation" ICBM. Design work began in 1972 on the MX (Missile-eXperimental). Apart from technical improvements in the missile the issues of survivability and mobility were regarded as of increasing importance. In 1976 Congress refused to fund a silo-based system on the grounds of vulnerability and the project was halted until 1979 when President Carter approved the missile development and a system of multiple protective shelters linked by rail as a deployment system. President Reagan cancelled the new shelter system in 1981 and pushed for a "dense pack" solution to speed deployment in 1982, Congress again rejected the silo based sytem. A compromise was developed in mid-1983, by which there would be swift deployment of 100 new missiles in silos to show "national will" and remove the Titan II ICBM from use followed by a new more mobile single-warhead ICBM later.
Reagan pushed the name Peacekeeper, but the missile was officially designated the LG-118A. It was first test fired on June 17, 1983Events January January 1 Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor January 1 the ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet. January 1 compulsory wearing of seat belts becomes law in the UK. January 2 The mu, from Vandenberg AFB, California, it covered 6,700 km to impact successfully in the KwajaleinKwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), 2,100 nautical miles (3900 km) southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, at 8. Kwajalein is the world's largest coral atoll, comprising 97 islets, and surrounds the world's largest lagoon. Since Test Range in the Pacific. The operational missile was manufactured from February 1984 and first deployed in December 1986 to the 90th Strategic Missile Wing at F.E. Warren AFBActive military base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Home of the 90th Space Wing, and 20th Air Force. Named for Francis E. Warren, one time governor of Wyoming. Given to the Air Force by the Army in 1948. An old cavalry post, it's original name was Fort D. in Wyoming to retro-fitted Minuteman silos. Fifty working missiles had been deployed at Warren by December 1988. The planned deployment of a hundred missiles was cancelled by Congress in July 1985 again over the survivability issue. In that decision, Congress limited Peacekeeper ICBM's to 50 missiles until a more survivable basing plan could be developed.
The survivability issue was to be solved by a "rail garrison" system whereby 25 trains each with two missiles would use the national railroad system to conceal themselves. It was intended to begin this system in late 1992 but budgetary constraints and the changing international situation led to it being scrapped.
The project has cost around $20 billion (up to 1998) and produced 114 missiles, at $400 m for each operational missile. The "flyaway" cost of each missile is estimated at $20-70 million.
Currently the missiles are being gradually retired, with 17 withdrawn during 2003, leaving 29 missiles on alert at the beginning of 2004. All are to be removed from service by 2005. Many are being converted to a satellite launcher role by Orbital SciencesOrbital Sciences Corporation OSC though commonly abbreviated as Orbital is a Dulles, Virginia company which specializes in satellite launch and manufacture. It also has a division which specializes in strategic missile defense and theater missile defense, as the OSP-2 Peacekeeper .
Testing of the Peacekeeper re-entry vehicles, all eight fired from only one missile. Each line, were its warhead live, represents the explosive power of twenty-five Hiroshima-sized weapons. LG-118A Peacekeeper
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