High Security

The Delta-09 Launch Facility held a Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile during the Cold War and was protected by a fence backed by motion sensors, standing orders, and authorized deadly force against any unauthorized crossing. It was one of ten launch facilities commanded by the Delta-01 Launch Control Center eleven miles southeast, and part of a vast network of about one thousand widely scattered ICBM silos across the American heartlands, each roughly the size of a football field, that sought to deter Soviet nuclear attack by threatening overwhelming destruction. Missiles in Minuteman silos required regular maintenance so they could launch at a moment's notice.

South Dakota · United States