SERVICE: Air Force
DESCRIPTION: The Peacekeeper missile is America's primary intercontinental ballistic missile that forms the core of the ICBM modernization program.
FEATURES:
The Peacekeeper is capable of delivering 10 independently targeted warheads with greater accuracy than any other ballistic missile. The Peacekeeper is a four-rocket stage ICBM system consisting of the boost system, the post-boost vehicle system and the re-entry system. The boost system consists of three rocket stages that launch the missile into space. These rocket stages are mounted atop one another and fire successively. Following burnout and separation of the boost system's third rocket stage, the post-boost vehicle system in space maneuvers the missile as its re-entry vehicles are deployed in sequence. The post-boost vehicle system is made up of a fourth rocket stage and a guidance and control system. The vehicle rides atop the boost system, weighs about 3,000 pounds (1,363 kilograms) and is 4 feet (1.21 meters) long. The top section of the Peacekeeper is the re-entry system. It consists of the deployment module, up to 10 cone-shaped re-entry vehicles and a protective shroud to protect the re-entry vehicles during ascent. The deployment module provides structural support for the re-entry vehicles and carries the electronics needed to activate and deploy them. Each deployed re-entry vehicle follows a ballistic path to its target.BACKGROUND:
The Air Force successfully conducted the first test flight of the Peacekeeper June 17, 1983, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The missile traveled 4,190 miles (6,704 kilometers) before dropping six unarmed test re-entry vehicles on planned target sites in the Kwajalein Missile Test Range in the Pacific Ocean. The first two test phases consisted of 12 test flights to ensure the Peacekeeper's subsystems performed as planned, and to make final assessments of its range and payload capability. The missile was fired from above-ground canisters in its first eight tests. Thereafter, test flights were conducted from Minuteman test silos reconfigured to simulate operational Peacekeeper sites. The Air Force achieved initial operational capability of 10 deployed Peacekeepers at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo. in December 1986. Full operational capability was achieved in December 1988 with the establishment of a squadron of 50 missiles. Air Force Systems Command's Ballistic Missile Organization (BMO) at Norton AFB, Calif., began full-scale development of the Peacekeeper in 1979.
