Titan II ICBM, Launch Complex 571-7, Sahuarita, AZ, 2009.All the pixels, with none of the radioactive fallout, at flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/41#photography

Looking up from the bottom of a missile pointed up inside a cramped underground silo, which is lined with retractable platforms and various apparatus.
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[–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (12 children)

Captured with a DSLR and a Zeiss 21mm Distagon lens. Handheld (there was no room to set up a tripod).In 2009, I was fortunate to join a "top to bottom" tour of former Air Force Titan ICBM site 571-7, now preserved as a museum. Titan II missiles carried a nine megaton(!) "physics package" in the "reentry vehicle" (which they emphatically assured me had been removed from this missile, but I still wouldn't advise upsetting them too much).Don't stand here during a launch.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (9 children)

    More ICBM photos and discussion here: mattblaze.org/blog/titans/

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (8 children)

    One of the themes of my work is "quietly heroic infrastructure".ICBMs are pretty much the opposite of that. Perhaps the worst infrastructure we ever built.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    @mattblaze While the Atlas (more so than Titan I would argue) turned out to be a lousy ICBM, it had quite the career as a launch vehicle. Not quite as legendary as the R-7 though.I think we can all be thankful that the ICBMs have remained "quietly heroic."

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)

    @mattblaze I take your point but, given that an ICBM has never* been used in combat, I would argue that they classify as “quietly heroic infrastructure”. Regardless, your shots are impressive, both technically and aesthetically. —* The jury is still out regarding the Dnipro strike.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    @daniel Sorry, but the fact that we haven’t actually collectively used it after just 60 or so years of the ability to exterminate hundreds of millions of lives at the push of a few buttons is cold comfort on the scale of human history. This is clearly evil and stupid, even if it isn’t obvious how to back out of it.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    @mattblaze @daniel Prisoner's dillemas are called dilemmas for a reason. Just imagine if Putin had nukes and no one else did. Of course the overkill on potential retaliation was and is really stupid.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    @mattblaze The illogic of nuclear deterrence has always amazed me.We're supposed to believe our adversaries will carefully and rationally weigh costs and benefits, and realize they will be destroyed by our nuclear retaliation, and therefore they must not attack us.Our adversaries are supposed to believe we are mad enough to destroy the whole world, with ourselves and our own children in it, for revenge.

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