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Getting An ICBM Back On The Road
   Next Article → MORALE: Benefits Beyond The Grave

October 7, 2008: Last July, a 66 foot long U.S. Air Force truck, carrying a 32 ton, 45 foot long first stage of a Minuteman III ICBM, had an accident. The damage, and the cost of recovering the truck and missile, cost $5.6 million. The truck drove too close to the side of a gravel road and flipped over on its side. This occurred 120 kilometers from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. The two airmen operating the vehicle, which was accompanied by a security vehicle, were not injured. Classified components of the missile were promptly removed, and the wreck remained there for eleven days while the incident was investigated. There was no nuclear weapon involved.

The air force did not give a breakdown of the costs, but it probably included the cost of the many air force personnel (security, investigators, administrative), the contractors that recovered the truck and missile, lawyers and other administrative costs. The air force admitted that there have been similar accidents every 5-10 years. 

 

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Camp       10/7/2008 11:01:25 AM
Maybe the Air Force could spend a couple million dollars on a truck & trailer that won't flip over so easily. In order to prevent having to spend "$5.6 million" about "every 5-10 years."  
 
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Dave_in_Pa    Some basic physics...   10/9/2008 11:52:16 AM
ANY tractor-trailor rig is going to be a lot lighter than 30+ tons, the weight of these loads. Therefore, ANY loaded tractor-trailor rig is going to be very top-heavy. So, the idea isn't spending several orders of magnitude more than $5 mil to research, develop, manufacture and field a fleet of trucks, which STILL won't be able to overcome the laws of physics, the Newtonian laws of motion.
 
Moreover, statistically speaking, one such accident every 5-10 years is a helluva lot lower incidence of major accidents than with commercial trucking fleets.
 
My initial reaction to this info is that with such a low incidence of major accidents, the Air Force is likely doing all that can be done, vis a vis using good, well-maintained trucks, properly trained drivers, etc.  At once every 5-10 years, we have to reasonably accept the fact that "sh*t happens".

 
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