Holy Crud! Do not stand in the way of the Minuteman III concrete top!
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ9tgSgx3PY

That thing looked like it almost went through the fence! :o It might have! Its about 2 minutes in!

Apparently that is 100 tons moving that fast!

-S

Okay, for a less than 6 minute video there is NO excuse for whatever idiot made it to include two minutes of "credits".

I agree. That is why I say 2 minutes in! :DL

-S

Good call. I should have listened. :salute:

It appears to be some sort of offical goverment production. What did you expect :rotfl:

2/3 of the video is posturing and credits :har:

The other 1/3 is pretty damn cool.

The whole landing in the water thing was anticlimactic, I was expecting a big boom. But nonetheless it was pretty cool.

And jeez do the concrete tops move that fast o.0?

When every second counts...I guess they need to not only move that darn thing but make sure it is darn waaaay outta the way. I think this concrete cover stopped in the next county. :o

Yeah and with the cost of the launch they had to send a man with two donkeys to go get the cover back :O:

Pretty nice. Didn't know that the actual warhead is so small in relation to the rest of the missile.

From what I found out, they are flung away at over 35 MPH. That is 100 tons of concrete moving at over 35 MPH!!!! :o

-S

One of my favorite videos. But it leaves out a lot of info.

The launch Facilities depicted in this video were constructed in the early 1960's when the CEP was estimated to be 900m-1200m. Good for the time but it also required very large weapons to accomplish the mission. The Titan II missile, the US largest nuclear capable missile, the one which launched the NASA Gemini missions, also carried the W-53 re-entry vehicle rated for a nominal yield of 9 Mt. Based on the assumtion that the Soviets could deliver the same nuclear punch, the debris catchers which are standard on Minuteman silos are not dipicted in the video.

Another thing the video doesn't account for is the ablative cork which is used to protect the missile during the 'hot' launch. Originally, during the MMI and MMII systems, a chemical known as AVCoat, developed by Textron, was used to aleviate the thermal forces during launch. This has since been replaced by natural cork, which thermal protective properties excede the man-made AvCoat. The application of cork also required the application of a anti-fungal paint, which gives MMIII its characteristic green appearance.

One last thing the video doesn't portray are the penetration aids (haha:))
From chafe to decoys to EMP weapons, the three warhead missile is a very capable weapon system.

For your edification.