Inside a top-secret training simulator where Air Force crews learned how to launch nuclear missiles during the Cold War

Missileers in the US Air Force remain on alert around the clock to launch nuclear missiles at a moment’s notice.

How does one prepare for such a scenario? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice.

During the Cold War, the Air Force built exact replicas of Launch Control Centers where crew members could train for launching the first intercontinental ballistic missiles.

One of these simulators, a Minuteman II missile procedures trainer, is displayed at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

The Air Force uses similar models to train modern missileers today. The historic Minuteman II missile procedures trainer exhibit provides a rare glimpse into the top-secret facilities that still serve as nuclear deterrents.

I visited the Missile Gallery at the National Museum of the US Air Force in August to explore the training simulator. Take a look inside.

The Missile Gallery at the National Museum of the US Air Force displays intercontinental ballistic missiles and related historical artifacts.

The museum’s collection includes Minuteman IA and III, Titan I and II, Jupiter, and Thor missiles, which served as nuclear deterrents at various points in US history.

The 140-foot-tall gallery, designed to look like a missile silo, features a balcony walkway to view the enormous missiles from above. Standing at ground level showed me just how enormous they are.

One of the most fascinating exhibits was the Minuteman II missile procedures trainer, where crews practiced for launching ICBMs.

The first Minuteman ICBM system, known as Minuteman I, became operational in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Minuteman II missiles followed in 1965. Kept on constant alert in underground silos and equipped with 1.2 megaton nuclear warheads, the missiles could travel at 15,000 miles per hour and reach targets anywhere in the world in under 30 minutes.

The Minuteman II missile procedures trainer, which the museum acquired from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota in 1994, is a model of a real Launch Control Center that would have been used to deploy nuclear missiles during the Cold War.

The simulator was used to train ICBM launch crews and prepare them for various scenarios, including launching nuclear missiles.

Crew members practiced for scenarios such as missile launches, security emergencies, and equipment failures with simulations that instructors programmed into computers.

The trainees’ personal lives were also scrutinized through a “personnel reliability program” to ensure that they were up to the job and could be trusted with part of America’s nuclear arsenal.

Actual Launch Control Centers featured a bed, a kitchen, and a bathroom, but in the simulators, that space was used by instructors.

In the real Launch Control Centers, each two-person crew worked 24-hour shifts. In training, each scenario lasted about three or four hours.

In the event of a nuclear missile launch ordered by the president, the commander and deputy commander would first verify a coded message.

In the US, the president is the only one with the authority to order the launch of nuclear missiles.

Once the code was verified, the crew member would unlock a red steel safe containing the two launch keys.

The two consoles with keyholes were built 12 feet apart so that no one person could turn both keys at the same time to launch the missiles. The chairs also featured seatbelts in case the facility was attacked.

The commander and deputy commander would each repeat the launch codes before turning the keys at the same time to initiate the launch.

The entire launch process was designed to take five minutes.

The Air Force still uses Launch Control Center simulators to train missileers.

Silo-based missiles make up one-third of the US nuclear triad, along with bombers and ballistic-missile submarines.

The Air Force Global Strike Command maintains around 400 silo-based Minuteman III ICBMs at three Air Force bases in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota, according to the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.

Minuteman III missiles are set to be replaced with the LGM-35 Sentinel, also known as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, in the 2030s, as some military leaders have called for the aging technology to be modernized.

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