ICBM Silo H9 New Town, North Dakota

This is a launch facility for an intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). There are 450 Minuteman III ICBMs in 450 active silos in the USA, constituting the nation’s fleet of land based intercontinental ballistic missiles, in fixed silos (down from twice that amount a few decades ago). Each silo is in an isolated and fenced small lot, remotely controlled, and unmanned. Individual groups of ten silos are controlled by a nearby Missile Alert Facility, which has a surface residence for the crew, a communication tower, and an underground launch control center. 15 of these Missile Alert Facilities, and the 150 silos they control, are clustered around three air force bases, which serve as maintenance and supply centers. These three bases are Minot AFB, in North Dakota; Malmstrom AFB in Montana; and Warren AFB, in Wyoming. Each launch control facility has an alpha numeric designation. In this case Missile Alert Facility H1, located a few miles east from this silo, controls ten silos, designated as H2 through H11, scattered around in the fields and farmland of region. Like most others, this launch facility H9 is publicly visible (though most of it is underground of course) a few hundred yards off a public road, in this case Highway 23, on the eastern edge of New Town.