31–40 of 61 posts
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I guess… Why wouldn’t it be? At some point why would you keep it classified? Funnily enough I’m just reading a book on Draper Labs and there’s a huge amount of detail on old inertial guidance systems.
The book to read is “Inventing Accuracy” by Donald Mackenzie
I was hugely disappointed by Blind Man's Bluff despite all the praise for it as it was written for a lay-audience.
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We want to make sure people believe in the deterrent. If people start to think they could take out all of our nukes somehow that would be dangerous.
It would almost be as dangerous as us building a system that we think could take out all of their nukes.
We have been in this very position before, in 1948, when we were the only people with nukes. We didn't first strike then.
It's bizarre that this type of information is made publicly available due to freedom of information legislation. What is the benefit? Or is it merely an acceptable side effect of the greater good that FoIA delivers? Not that my curiosity isn't triggered, but...
I feel compelled to post some images of inertial guidance systems. Most of these parts are from the Minuteman 1 although there are some earlier and later guidance system components. The white backplane and the gyroscopes are Minuteman 1 parts. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YG4TcsmGWIVSf
Good ole' Autonetics. BTW you can see some of these at the Air and Space Museum in DC, and a smaller set at the Computer Science Museum in ... Palo Alto? Mountain View? (that area)
Related: Command and Control by Eric Schlosser Great book.
Back in high school ~17 years ago I came across a website talking about it, then a couple months later on a road trip, I remembered it as we were driving though South Dakota. We were about 7 miles away when I remembered, and it was well worth stopping.
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>The MGS is an inertial guidance system which directs the flight of the missile. The guidance system operates continuously while the missile is in alert status, thus enabling the missile to be launched in less than one minute. I wonder how often the missile is in alert status? Presumably regular testing? For those just skimming the guidance system info (for Minuteman III) starts on page 49. Looks like they miniaturiz…
> I wonder how often the missile is in alert status? In 1972-74 when I was a Minuteman I launch officer (DMCCC) our 10 missiles were /always/ on alert. You would expect to see 10 green "Strategic Alert" lights across the crew commander's (MCCC's) console unless something was wrong (requiring maintenance or a brief calibration). IIRC we were in a perpetual state of DEFCON 4 in those days.
As a Minuteman launch officer, I'd be curious what are your thoughts on the incursion accounts of launch officers Robert Salas & David Schindele? (I understand there were comparable reports going into the 1970s as well but I'm not as familiar with those)
Salas @ Malmstrom https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-air-force-personnel-ufos-dea...
Schindele @ Minot: https://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2023/06/forme...
I feel compelled to post some images of inertial guidance systems. Most of these parts are from the Minuteman 1 although there are some earlier and later guidance system components. The white backplane and the gyroscopes are Minuteman 1 parts. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YG4TcsmGWIVSf
>The MGS is an inertial guidance system which directs the flight of the missile. The guidance system operates continuously while the missile is in alert status, thus enabling the missile to be launched in less than one minute. I wonder how often the missile is in alert status? Presumably regular testing? For those just skimming the guidance system info (for Minuteman III) starts on page 49. Looks like they miniaturiz…
Ground-based launchers are not survivable and must be ready to fire promptly after attack warning.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_N._Hall
had a brother in the Manhattan Project, Theodore Hall,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Hall
who passed early atomic weapon design information to the USSR.
The irony of a family exercising pivotal roles on both sides of a global power-shaping conflict. The 2nd Wikipedia article's cited background, from The Nation:
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/ted-hall-espionage-f...
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>The MGS is an inertial guidance system which directs the flight of the missile. The guidance system operates continuously while the missile is in alert status, thus enabling the missile to be launched in less than one minute. I wonder how often the missile is in alert status? Presumably regular testing? For those just skimming the guidance system info (for Minuteman III) starts on page 49. Looks like they miniaturiz…
Regular testing is one of the few times a US ICBM would _not_ be in alert status. Ground-based launchers are not survivable and must be ready to fire promptly after attack warning.