Tornado Alley (PROG)

[Koog]

In my younger years, I served on an ICBM combat crew as a missile launch officer.

There is something in this piece that seems very wrong. The authors write "The North’s (Korea) longest-range missiles are believed to be powered by liquid rocket fuel. That means the missiles cannot be stored and ready-to-fire at a moment’s notice. They must be loaded with fuel before launch, a process than (sic) can take hours."

That used to be true. A VERY long time ago. The old Atlas missiles had to be stored in concrete "coffins" horizontally then raised and fueled before launch.

But the Titan II ICBM was stored upright in an underground silo, fueled (liquid fuel & oxidizer) at all times and ready for launch. They were on alert from 1963 until 1987. I see no reason the North Koreans couldn't do the same. The Titan II is really old technology. I wonder how much more of this article is "a bit off".

BTW, ICBM's require two officers to turn their launch key almost simultaneously in order to launch (no button). How do I know? I was one of those officers.