Once part of the American nuclear deterrence programme and armed with a live missile, Titan II ICBM Site 571-7 squatted silently in the middle of the Arizona Desert, home to a small crew and all the potential horror of a massive W53 warhead. During the Cold War, the weapon was armed and aimed at a specific location inside the Soviet Union, the name of which is still classified. When all Titan II missiles were decommissioned in the 1980s, the silos which held them were destroyed – all but this one, which is now a National Historic Landmark, and the only museum and visitor centre of its kind.

The silo contains an inert missile (with holes in it, to prove that it’s no longer a threat), but everything else is intact, so it’s possible to see the launch control room, the eight-foot thick silo walls, dense blast walls and the missile itself, from within the launch duct, a hundred feet down. Even simulated launches are held – but for those who want to understand how it must really have felt to be there in the 1960s, there’s an option to stay overnight as a Titan II crew member in the underground quarters, just a few steps from the missile itself.

Written by  larapiegeler.

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