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50 nuclear missiles deactivated at Malmstrom

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Malmstrom Air Force Base officials say they have completed deactivation of 50 missile launch facilities for the 564th Missile Squadron after two years of work.

A maintenance group put in more than 29,000 hours to remove all the major equipment and components from the silos, as well as the five missile-alert facilities that controlled them.

“Our folks really stayed positive and upbeat throughout the whole deactivation program,” said Master Sgt. Les Moore, noncommissioned officer in charge of the missile maintenance team section. “It’s that great attitude that kept things on track. When you are breaking loose and removing hardware that had been in place since 1967, it takes willpower and drive. I am very proud of the people that made it happen.”

Top military officials determined in early 2006 that it was no longer strategically necessary to keep 500 intercontinental ballistic missiles on alert nationwide.

The Air Force chose to deactivate the 564th, northwest of Great Falls between Shelby and Dutton, because it had a different internal communications system than used in the nation’s nine other ICBM squadrons.

Other missile squadrons

Malmstrom’s other three missile squadrons, as well as three each at F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming and Minot AFB in North Dakota, remain in operation. Each squadron has 50 ICBMs.

Thousands of equipment items needed to be removed, including 10 security doors weighing 14,000 pounds each and 660 batteries weighing more than 1,400 pounds each, as well as several items containing hazardous chemicals, Malmstrom officials said.

After the deactivation was completed, the gates of the facilities were secured and the sites were placed in caretaker status, in which Malmstrom security will drive by periodically to check for vandalism, unauthorized entry and topside flooding. The sites will be mowed to provide weed control.