Dismantling of missiles begins

GREAT FALLS – Crews at Malmstrom Air Force Base have removed the first of 50 Minuteman III missiles it controls as part of a yearlong deactivation ordered by U.S. military officials.

Technicians carefully dismantled the missile’s rocket from its silo northwest of Brady in a slow, exacting process that took all day Thursday, said Lt. Col. Paul Irwin, deputy commander of the 341st Maintenance Group.

The rocket was driven to Malmstrom and will be taken to a depot at Hill Air Force Base in Odgen, Utah, within a few days. It and the other dismantled rockets will be made available for test launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Earlier in the week, crews removed the missile’s guidance system and re-entry vehicle, which carries the missile warheads. A security force squadron accompanied the vehicle as it was taken back to the base’s weapon storage area.

“They use a very safe, very secure and very tested process in dealing with the weapon,” base spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said.

Irwin said removing the missiles, while complicated, is “business as usual” because crews regularly remove missiles for occasional maintenance or systems upgrades. The base is incorporating the work into its maintenance schedule, meaning it won’t require outside crews.

“We’ve been moving these missile assets for 40 years and have always done so safely and securely,” Irwin said.

A Department of Energy team will pick up the warheads and take them to an undisclosed area for storage, he said.

The deactivation, finalized earlier this month, will leave Malmstrom with 150 missiles. The base will also lose about 500 of its 3,600 military personnel and the $3.2 million it receives to operate the 564th Missile Squadron.

In 2006, the Pentagon said it would reduce by 10 percent the nation’s stockpile of 500 missiles overseen from Air Force bases in Minot, N.D., and Cheyenne, Wyo., as well as Malmstrom.

The Montana base had the largest stockpile and with the reduction, missile operations in all three states will be the same size. Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming are home to the nation’s only intercontinental ballistic missile wings.