The Titan Missile Museum is located about twenty miles south of central Tucson in Sahuarita, Arizona. It is just west of i19 on Duval Mine Road.
The Titan Missile Museum is a very important part of American history. It is the only museum in the world just like it. It is unique because this museum became a landmark after the Cold War when the original use of the site was no longer necessary. This museum is the holder of a large Titan II Warhead. The Titan II is an ICBM, meaning intercontinental ballistic missile. As an intercontinental missile, it was meant to be launched from the United States to a different country. In the case of the Titan II, it was trained onto a target in Russia. The ballistic part of the description means that once it was launched, there would be nothing anyone could do because the missile is self guided. It is self guided, but after the original force to launch, it moved because of its own physical properties like momentum and the gravity from Earth.
The missile located just south of Tucson is the lone remaining Titan II missile. All of the 54 missile silos were operational between the years of 1963-1987, but over the years once the war ended, all have been removed and deactivated. This silo holds a deactivated missile, and there is a hole near the top where the warhead would rest. This is to show the world the warhead is empty and the missile is purely kept for educational and historical purposes.
At this museum, there is a short video at the beginning of a guided tour to go beneath the surface to see some of the hallways and the control room. The video focuses on describing deterrence as the most important factor for preventing nuclear war. It also explains the evolution from the Titan I missiles to the Titan II in terms of range, fuel, and purpose. The Titan II missiles contained a larger warhead and could be launched much faster because of the implementation of stored propellants. The new propellants were able to be stored near the missile and then mixed upon lift off, which decreased the amount of time the missile needed to become airborne.
The rest of the guided tour takes the tourists down 55 stairs into a bunker that is built to hold people for lengthy periods of time, as the country was on red-alert for most of this operational time. There are many wires and cables that help provide a spring-like characteristic to the main control rooms in the event of a sizable earthquake or a near nuclear miss in order to ensure it was still functional and able to retaliate if necessary.
The tour guides add little details talking about the life of the crew and other structural descriptions. Most of the time is spent in the control room where the guide has a woman sit in the commander chair before acting out all of the steps the commander and the second in command position would have to complete before launching the missile. The order to launch can only come from the President. The Titan II Missile crews were the first crews women were ever allowed to serve on, which is why a woman on the tour is asked to take that seat.
This is an important museum in Tucson because of everything it stands for. In this time period, the Cold War is more of a distant thought, especially for the younger generation. It is taught in schools, but it feels so far away. Being able to see this missile in its entirety is world breaking. The surface area allows the tourists to walk around the platform and look into the silo. You can look all around the missile and look down the multiple floors the missile takes up. The sheer size of the missile is outstanding. As stated earlier, there is a hole showing the vacancy of the nuclear warhead. The Russians have permission to come visit whenever to make sure the missile is always unarmed and dormant.
Not only is it important enough to warrant that kind of security, but there are still details left top secret. There were three possible targets the missile could have been set on, but no one knew what they were, except for the highest chain of command. The two officers in charge of firing the missile would not know where it was going. A story like this shows how high stakes the operation was.
This site does a great job emphasizing the importance of the crews being ready at all times. It takes a few hours from launch to impact, so if the missile needs to be fired, it must happen in a timely fashion. There can be no mistakes, no accidents, no breaches of security. The younger generation cannot fully understand the importance of nuclear safety from deterrence. The idea was that whichever country could have bigger and better weapons, the other side would not immediately resort to nuking the other. This is incredibly important because it shows how the Cold War truly was a negotiation that happened verbally with little to no actual warfare.
Another important part of the history is the length of time those missiles were on alert. The difference between 1963-1987 is 24 years. Twenty four years is a long time to have crews stationed below ground switching off in scheduled increments in order to keep everyone refreshed and ready for action. It is hard to imagine being stationed at one of the 54 Titan II missiles never knowing if that was the day you would be directly involved in creating a massive amount of nuclear fallout.
Some information that is sometimes provided by the tour guides include the use of the design of the Titan II missiles when they were no longer employed to be launched as nuclear warheads. Many of the unarmed Titan II missiles were used in NASA programs for space programs. For instance, many Titan missiles were used in the Gemini missions.
This museum stands as a wonderful testament to the bravery of the American military and a reminder of one of the most uncertain times in the country’s history. The missile was a success even though it was never launched, which shows how peace through deterrence really works. It deserves to be remembered and taught about using a prop significant enough to imprint the importance of the events of the Cold War.
Other Resources:
https://titanmissilemuseum.org/
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This museum stands as a wonderful testament to the bravery of the American military and a reminder of one of the most uncertain times in the country’s history. The missile was a success even though it was never launched, which shows how peace through deterrence really works. It deserves to be remembered and taught about using a prop significant enough to imprint the importance of the events of the Cold War.
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