# Launching a Minuteman from a C-5



## AWP (Aug 11, 2013)

Pretty neat article from CNN about using the C-5 as a the launch platform for an ICBM.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/09/travel/c5-galaxy-dover-museum-minuteman-missile/index.html?hpt=hp_t3



> The behemoth nicknamed Zero-One-Four arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Wednesday, where it soon will be handed over to the Air Mobility Command Museum. The giant jet with 90014 painted on its tail made history in 1974 when it became the only aircraft ever to drop and ignite a live, Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile.


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## pardus (Aug 11, 2013)

Interesting.


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## Red Flag 1 (Aug 11, 2013)

Quite an exercise ! Hard to see the value, given the  USN's fleet of "Boomers". Given the big target a C-5 is, all the enemy would have to do is suspect an ICBM on board, and "poof" one dead ICBM; and crew. Nice exercise, though .


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## DA SWO (Aug 11, 2013)

Red Flag 1 said:


> Quite an exercise ! Hard to see the value, given the  USN's fleet of "Boomers". Given the big target a C-5 is, all the enemy would have to do is suspect an ICBM on board, and "poof" one dead ICBM; and crew. Nice exercise, though .


I think it was never intended to be operational, but destruction would not have been that easy.  A C-5 flying over the CONUS or Canada would not be that easy to spot.

This was done when the MX ConOps was being developed/hashed out.


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## Red Flag 1 (Aug 11, 2013)

Gotcha. FWIW, I as @ VAFB when the MX/Peacekeeper was launched.  We had meetings afer meetings about the demonstrators & expected, and what to do with them. Ah, the days of endless fun we  had.


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## DA SWO (Aug 11, 2013)

Red Flag 1 said:


> Gotcha. FWIW, I as @ VAFB when the MX/Peacekeeper was launched.  We had meetings afer meetings about the demonstrators & expected, and what to do with them. Ah, the days of endless fun we  had.


Airplanes, trucks, rail road cars, and a mountain shell game; in the end we stuck them in holes.


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## Red Flag 1 (Aug 11, 2013)

It did not have the ground/window rattling of an Atlas, but a pretty big bang, followed by a respectable roar.


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## Confederate Son (Aug 11, 2013)

Would this be how the idea to shove a BLU out of a C130 was hatched?


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## pardus (Aug 11, 2013)

Confederate Son said:


> Would this be how the idea to shove a BLU out of a C130 was hatched?



I'd have to double check, but I think they were throwing bombs and things out the back during Vietnam.


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## Confederate Son (Aug 11, 2013)

pardus said:


> I'd have to double check, but I think they were throwing bombs and things out the back during Vietnam.


Ah yea.. Daisy Cutter.. You are correct Sir. Ty.


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## AWP (Aug 11, 2013)

pardus said:


> I'd have to double check, but I think they were throwing bombs and things out the back during Vietnam.


 
And it was probably being done before that. C-119's in Vietnam, Algeria, probably even Korea if we did some digging. My money would be on barrels of napalm.


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## Ranger Psych (Aug 11, 2013)

I think many combat actions would have been more safely and entertainingly completed if it simply involved dozing a fire line around a mountain's base and then napalming the fuck out of it.

Oh, you're holing up in a cave? Have fun breathing.


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## talonlm (Aug 14, 2013)

pardus said:


> I'd have to double check, but I think they were throwing bombs and things out the back during Vietnam.



They were dropping 10,000 pounders from slick C-130s in the mid-60s. The BLU-82s came about when they ran out of the 1000o bombs.


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