Jim,
I know your time is valuable,so I will get right to it. The recent post on buying [decommissioned underground US Air Force Intercontinental Ballistic] missile sites raises a question. Aren’t these sites vulnerable during nuclear attacks/exchange with a foreign country? Thanks for your site and your service. – John
JWR Replies: They would only be pinpoint targets if the Soviets are still using ancient targeting data, and that is very unlikely. From all that I have read, they simply are no longer included in the “target structure” for any nation states that are potential combatants. (Like Russia, China, and North Korea.) I cannot imagine a nation state being that inept. The only significant threat to some of these decommissioned sites is that they are contiguous to–or immediately downwind of–newer, currently-deployed missile sites. That was case for a old Titan I silo that I researched on behalf of a consulting client, who was considering buying it. This site is near Chugwater, Wyoming–which is also the home of a fairly new, active Minuteman III silos!)
On a related note, I should mention that I was forced to use out-of-date nuclear targeting data in my book “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” [1], but only because there has been no declassified targeting data (that is, CIA assessment of likely Soviet targets) released since the late 1970s.