How a Titan Nuclear Missile Launch Works

If you stop at 1:14 and notice the lit lamps next to the key. One says "LAUNCH ENABLE". The unlit key below it says "LAUNCH DISABLE". The control 'computer' or system was analog, so the Launch Enable and Launch Disable lamps were lit by the presence of voltage on that particular wire. In essence, it's a digital 1 if voltage is present and a digital 0 (on or off) if no voltage was present. As I volunteered at the Missile Museum in the early/mid 90's giving tours, I had the opportunity to meet many individuals who were involved in the design and construction of the silos and missiles, as well as people who had worked on decommissioning and demolition of silos when the program ended. In any case, I learned this tidbit of information from an individual who worked on the design. During an actual launch, where the alarm comes in, the red safe is opened and the launch codes are entered, the silo door will slide open and when the keys are turned, the presence of the LAUNCH ENABLE signal would allow the butterfly valves on the fuel and oxidizer to open and mix, which would launch the missile. During one of the test drills, everything is done the same, EXCEPT you would see the lamp on the LAUNCH DISABLE switch LIT. This would allow the codes to be entered into the computer, the silo door would slide open, BUT the keys were turned, the butterfly valves would NOT OPEN, and NO LAUNCH would occur. Now the person I met discussed this with me at some length - each silo had all the manuals and wiring schematics for all of the equipment there, to include the computer equipment. if you were to pull up one of the floor panels behind the computer racks, and find the bundle of wires, you could find the two wires (LAUNCH ENABLE and LAUNCH DISABLE), and if you cut them and wired them so the LAUNCH DISABLE signal was connected to the LAUNCH ENABLE wire, then when you were just going thru a TEST DRILL, and when the crew turned their keys, their panel would 'show' that launch DISABLE was lit, but in reality it was connected so the computer would see LAUNCH ENABLE, and thus, would allow the butterfly valves to open on the fuel tank and oxidizer and the missile would, in fact, launch with its warhead armed. No shit. Any person with access to that floor panel could start a nuclear war. And the reverse of that is that if it were totally cross connected, then IF the crew ever needed to launch that missile, it would NOT launch. Because the LAUNCH ENABLE signal was cross-wired to the LAUNCH DISABLE wire. And the fact is, that due to the command center isolation from the launch silo itself, the crew would never know that the missile HAD launched or failed to launch. They would only know it if they were told by radio or if somebody bothered to look in the silo after the test or launch. Anyways, after I talked to the person who told me this, I asked him what the solution was to prevent this. He told me that after he notified the Air Force of this 'flaw', he was detained in a room at Davis-Monthan AFB for two days, going over the schematics with them to prove how it could be done, and treated him like HE was, well, a bad guy. Well anyways, he said, their brilliant solution was to simply WELD the floor panel down in place to make it impossible go pull up to access the wiring bundle beneath it. At that point, as the tour was over and we were the only two left in the command center, we walked behind the computer rack, and we tried to remove floor panels to look at the wiring , and sure enough, only ONE of those floor panels was welded down tight.....this is probably one of the best things I ever learned while working at the museum...

I was a Titan-II E-lab or electronics lab tech in the AF from 1980-83. I went to tech school in Wichita Fall's, Texas during most of 1980. Went to my permanent duty station at LRAFB where I was part of the 308 MIMS or missile maintenance squadron. I was still in Texas when 374-7 blew in September 1980. We had 18 missiles before that accident and 17 for the remainder of Titan-II service. I got out in September 83 after seeing what my job prospects were in the AF. They were kind of bleak but my Titan-II experience landed me at Kennedy Space Center on the Spacelab and later ISS programs. During my Titan stint, one airman expressed concern about the Titan-IIs ability to kill millions. I told him as long as it's not used in combat, it's working. It was designed to be a deterrent to nuclear war. And it worked.

I was a 31652F Titan II missile electronics tech from '79-'85 I assure you we were deadly serious about our work and made damn sure those missiles were ready to rock should the moment arise......I'm happy to report that we completed our mission with perfect results.....Rivet Cap 1987

What a well done video. Thanks for taking the time to make and share it!

I served as a launch crew member at McConnell AFB 1967-1970 as a Missile Systems Analyst Technician...fascinating job.

Absolutely one of the most interesting videos I've ever watched in my life. I could spend 30 minutes just walking around down there asking questions. Thank you for posting it

Fantastic job with this video. The editing was great and it was very informal.

I've been to this wonderful, historic (and terrifying - at the same time) museum 3 times. It is by far, one of my favorite museums.

Always a fascinating subject having grown up in the 70's and 80's of what went on in those silos.  Enjoyed very much.  Thank you for posting!!

I went there last year. Great tour. I even got to turn the key.

I went there last year. One heck of a tour. I suggest doing it in the summer when few people would want to be there. And I did sit at the console and turn the key!

Thank you kindly, makthnife. I appreciate the cool comments because it always takes more work than I think to put it together. It's cool that YouTube gives us that "free" window into places I've always wanted to see, but as you've noted, unfortunatly, people don't really edit/take time to shoot what they are seeing. BTW: within the next few hours I'll be posting a new video on the living computer museum in Seattle with a few elements I used from here. Take it easy and thanks again.

Worth the tour! Amazing technology!

very cool video makes you realize how little the everyday problems in your life are so little in a much bigger world thanks for sharing/uploading

I went on this tour back in 2011, and it was very good.   I served in the AF from 1965 to 1969 and spent 2 years at Vandenburg AFB in the Titan II program.before shipping to SE Asia to finish out my military service.   I was in electronics, so maintained all launch and com equipment used in the complex.  Everyone on site had to be in direct communication with the control center at all times, so we wore small belt clip radios with a boom headset/mic.   The bird at this exhibit had a warhead with 9 individually targetable 1 megaton MIRV's.   Occasionally I saw a bird come out of the hole and begin to spiral, which then had to be detonated.  On one occasion I saw the bird come out then immediately fall back on top of the complex and explode - quite spectacular on a night launch!

Fascinating. Thank you for sharing

I went to this museum once. It was really cool!

Well done. Thanks for posting.

Wayne, I presume? That was one EXCELLENT and WELL DONE video on a site where lousiness reigns supreme! Thank you for a damn cool vid. Gonna hit that Titan museum next visit down that way :)

I live in Tucson and take as many people as are willing to the museum and on the tour, which happens to be one of my favorite places. We also have The Pima Air Museum here. It is the third largest Air Museum in the U.S. and well worth visting.