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A missile silo is a underground vertical cylindrical container for the storage and launching of ICBMs. They typically have the missile some distance under the surface, protected with a huge
"blast door" on top.
Until the 1960s ICBMs had been launched from surface bases. The Soviets
used completely aboveground launchers similar to those found at a space launch site, which made them vunerable to US bomber
attack. The US Atlas missile was somewhat better protected, stored
horizontally in a concrete building known as "coffins", then raised to the vertical shortly before launch. These rather poorly
protected systems were a side effect of the corrosive liquid fuels used, which required the missiles to stand empty and then be
fueled immediately prior to launch.
Things changed with the introduction of the US's Titan missile and the
Soviet UR-100 missile series.
Both used new liquid fuels that could be stored in the missiles, thereby allowing for rapid launch. Both systems were then moved
to the silo system. The introduction of solid fuel systems in the later 1960s made this even easier.
The silo has remained the primary basing system for land based missiles since that time. However the increased accuracy of
inertial guidance systems has since rendered them somewhat less
protected than they were in the 1960s. The US spent considerable effort in the 1970s and 80s designing a replacement, but none of
the complex systems were ever produced. Both the US and USSR developed mobile ICBM's as well, but only the Soviets put them into
production. Today much of the US arsenal has been placed on submarines (as SLBMs), while
Russia has downsized their own force to a handful of mobile and silo-based weapons.
On a lighter note, the increase in decommissioned missile silos has led governments to sell them to individuals, who then
convert them to indisputably unique abodes.
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