American Scientists Find US Air Force Documents That Will Place ICBMs In Underground Tunnels

An illustration of the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (photo: Reuters)

JAKARTA - A document recently released by the US Air Force suggests various alternatives for fielding the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM in the future.

The Federation Of American Scientists (FAS) was the first to discover the document. FAS explained that on July 1, the Air Force published a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed ICBM replacement program, previously known as Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) and now under its new name, “Sentinel.”

The design of the EIS is eagerly awaited by local stakeholders, chambers of commerce, contractors and local residents. Governments typically conduct an EIS whenever a federal program has the potential to disrupt local water supply, transportation, socioeconomic, geological, air quality, and other related factors.

Based on what the FAS found, the EIS List notes that the Air Force assessed two interesting and somewhat familiar alternatives to basing the new missile in underground tunnels and in deep lake silos.

This tunnel option has been discussed before, but no details have been given about locating, designing, excavating, developing and installing critical supporting infrastructure such as rail systems and launch facilities for the various underground passageways that are likely to span hundreds of miles.

The second option is to base the ICBM into a lake silo. This concept is dubbed as "Hydra". Interestingly according to FAS, this raises the theoretical question of whether the Air Force will still retain control of the ICBM mission, given that the missile will be underwater.

When considering alternative base modes for the Sentinel ICBM, the Air Force omitted both concepts due to cost prohibitions, and a lack of confidence that missiles would be safe and secure in the case of underwater bases.

This concern was also raised in a 1980 study that the Pentagon acknowledged the possibility that US adversaries and non-state actors “will also be involved in the Hydra hunt. Any missile can be destroyed or towed (stolen) at leisure."

In addition to revealing interesting details about alternatives being considered for the Sentinel program, the Draft EIS also highlights public comments suggesting that the "most environmentally responsible option" is simply a Minuteman III inventory reduction. However, the US Air Force declined to comment on this.