Spark

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Silo costs 1960s.
What were the Titan 2 silo costs (1960$)?
What were the 1960 Blue Streak silo cost estimates?
How did they compare?
How did they compare with Polaris costs?
 
who compare the two ?

the K11 silo for Blue Streak http://www.spaceuk.org/bstreak/bs/k11.html
was all in one Bunker means ICBM and crew, also storage of LOX in a separated tank from Blue Streak, were in one and same place.
the Titan II slios were peripheral, the Crew had there bunker separated with tunnels from Silos
http://www.titan2icbm.org/titanC.html

Cost
after Air Ministry estimates they needed 60 K11 silos in Britain, each cost 2.3 million pound sterling in 1959
each the Titan II silos cost 8 million US dollars in 1962/63 http://www.colindaylinks.com/arizona/titan1.html

the Polaris "silo" cost is here to compare apples and oranges
because the "Silo" is a nuclear submarine with estimate cost of 40 million pound sterling (from Defences Estimates)
about Polaris program total cost, i have only one information that the cost were £150 million less than that of the V bomber force. from Wiki.
 
Spark said:
Silo costs 1960s.
What were the Titan 2 silo costs (1960$)?
What were the 1960 Blue Streak silo cost estimates?
How did they compare?
How did they compare with Polaris costs?

According to the FY61 defense budget, a Titan II silo cost US$16 million; a Minuteman silo cost US$14 million. That includes all the necessary infrastructure to make a silo system work. However, the actual cost is hard to get at since the silos were continuously upgraded and modernized and the cost of each tranche of modernizations was funded seperately.

The earlier "coffin" and trench systems were much less expensive.
 
Polaris Cost

“by 10/68 the program had cost some £350Mn., only 5% (>) the estimated sum”, Vickers’ Chairman: “the best defence bargain the Br. taxpayer ever had.” Grove,Vanguard to Trident,Bodley Head,1987,P.243. The Nassau Connection,HMSO, 1994 asserts good management. Such claims were unverifiable because of security;the datum lacked any benchmark. Unused contingency funds yielded the savings: these boats were estimated by bloat: R.Moore,RN & Nuclear Weapons,H’wood,2001,P17, quoting RN's SPO: “I hadn’t the faintest idea (of hull build) so I took projected cost of Valiant (SSN) and doubled it.”

Nobody had any notion about these things in 1957-60. Separate budgets for each activity, never drawn together. UK did not introduce a feeble attempt at Project Costing until 1964.
 
Last edited:
Titan II Missile Silo Tour & Photos. For those interested in the details of what the Titan II ICBM silo and control center looks like, here are photos of the tour. This museum is located just south of Tucson, Arizona and is the only remains (inactivated) Titan II silo in Cold War condition. Tours are led by docents who served as missile officers during the period. The tour goes into the crew control capsule, the connecting tunnel to the missile silo, which features an inactivated Titan II in the silo. The large, heavy silo doors are left partially opened and blocked, and the warhead heat shield set to comply with SALT agreements. Above ground are Titan II engines and the fueling apparatus, as well as various antennas for communications. Note that a the warhead is a 9 megaton fission triggered fusion device and not just a uranium physics package as it says in Legend 6A

I have added descriptions to the photos, but I am happy to answer any additional questions.
 

Attachments

  • 1. Titan II Museum Location .jpeg
    1. Titan II Museum Location .jpeg
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  • 2. Titan II  Museum.jpeg
    2. Titan II Museum.jpeg
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  • 3. Underground Silo Diagram .jpeg
    3. Underground Silo Diagram .jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 13
  • 4. Heat shield.jpeg
    4. Heat shield.jpeg
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  • 5. B-53 nuclear warhead.jpeg
    5. B-53 nuclear warhead.jpeg
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  • 6. B-53 warhead.jpeg
    6. B-53 warhead.jpeg
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  • 6A B-53 Physics Package.jpeg
    6A B-53 Physics Package.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 10
  • 7. Inertial Guidance Package.jpeg
    7. Inertial Guidance Package.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 10
  • 8. Guidance Description.jpeg
    8. Guidance Description.jpeg
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  • 9. Launch Control Capsule electonics.jpeg
    9. Launch Control Capsule electonics.jpeg
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  • 11. Launch Codes.jpeg
    11. Launch Codes.jpeg
    1 MB · Views: 9
  • 12. Launch Capsule Shock Mounts.jpeg
    12. Launch Capsule Shock Mounts.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 8
  • 13. Launch Capsule Shock Mounts.jpeg
    13. Launch Capsule Shock Mounts.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 11
  • 14. Launch Control Capsule & Docent.jpeg
    14. Launch Control Capsule & Docent.jpeg
    1.7 MB · Views: 12
  • 15. Launch Capsule Communications Suite.jpeg
    15. Launch Capsule Communications Suite.jpeg
    1 MB · Views: 12
  • 16. Connecting tunnel to Missile Silo.jpeg
    16. Connecting tunnel to Missile Silo.jpeg
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  • 17. Connecting tunnel shock mounts.jpeg
    17. Connecting tunnel shock mounts.jpeg
    928.2 KB · Views: 9
  • 18. Connecting tunnel cable shock mounting.jpeg
    18. Connecting tunnel cable shock mounting.jpeg
    1 MB · Views: 8
  • 20. Upper stage & warhead of Titan II in silo.jpeg
    20. Upper stage & warhead of Titan II in silo.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 9
  •  21. Silo Service platforms folded up.jpeg
    21. Silo Service platforms folded up.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 9
Last edited:
Titan Missile Silo- Part 2.
I hit the 20 file limit in the above post.
 

Attachments

  • 22. missile first annd second stages.jpeg
    22. missile first annd second stages.jpeg
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  • 23. Missile umbilicals.jpeg
    23. Missile umbilicals.jpeg
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  • 24. IMU guidance  sighting window.jpeg
    24. IMU guidance sighting window.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 8
  • 25. Above Ground Installation.jpeg
    25. Above Ground Installation.jpeg
    974.6 KB · Views: 7
  • 26. Missile Silo Door on Rails.jpeg
    26. Missile Silo Door on Rails.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 7
  • 27. Missile Silo Doors parially retracted.jpeg
    27. Missile Silo Doors parially retracted.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 6
  • 28. Missile in Silo from above ground.jpeg
    28. Missile in Silo from above ground.jpeg
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  • 29. Warhead inactivation cut.jpeg
    29. Warhead inactivation cut.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 8
  • 30. Intruder radar detection system.jpeg
    30. Intruder radar detection system.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 8
  • 31. Above Ground Antennas.jpeg
    31. Above Ground Antennas.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 6
  • 32. First stage engine plaque.jpeg
    32. First stage engine plaque.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 6
  • 33. Titan II first stage engines.jpeg
    33. Titan II first stage engines.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 6
  • 34. Titan II first stage engines.jpeg
    34. Titan II first stage engines.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 7
  • 35. Second stage engine plaque.jpeg
    35. Second stage engine plaque.jpeg
    1.1 MB · Views: 6
  • 36. Second Stage engine.jpeg
    36. Second Stage engine.jpeg
    1 MB · Views: 6
  • 40. Oxidizer loading plaque.jpeg
    40. Oxidizer loading plaque.jpeg
    1.2 MB · Views: 6
  • 41. Refueling Hardstand-1.jpeg
    41. Refueling Hardstand-1.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 6
  • 42. refueling Hardstand -2.jpeg
    42. refueling Hardstand -2.jpeg
    1 MB · Views: 6
  • 44. Titan Silo Area.jpeg
    44. Titan Silo Area.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 7
  • 45. It's in the desert-Be careful!.jpeg
    45. It's in the desert-Be careful!.jpeg
    957.5 KB · Views: 13

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