WHEN THE Minuteman Ⅲ intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) entered development, Lyndon Johnson was president, the Vietnam war was in full swing and the first series of "Star Trek" was on television. When it entered service in 1970, it was the first missile capable of disgorging multiple warheads onto different targets. More than half a century later the Minuteman Ⅲ is America's last icbm standing. Four hundred of them are studded in the ground across silos in five mid-western states, ready to blast out and deliver atomic vengeance within minutes of a presidential order. The Minuteman Ⅲ is one leg of America's nuclear triad, the suite of silos, submarines and bombers that carry its 1,457 deployed nuclear weapons, within the limit of 1,550 set by the recently extended New START treaty with Russia (more bombs are in storage). All three legs are getting rusty. The oldest bomber, the B-52, at 66, is old enough to draw a pension; the youngest, the stealthy b-2, was designed in the late 1970s and will retire in a decade or so. The oldest Ohio-class submarine will celebrate its 40th birthday in November. Replacements for these weapons are on the way. A new bomber, the B-21 "Raider", will conduct its first flight next year; a new Columbia-class submarine will start prowling the oceans in a decade. Yet the future of the ICBM force is more uncertain.
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