As the US prepares to spend $1.16 trillion revamping its nuclear defences, a rare glimpse inside the country's missile bases reveals many maintenance tasks are still done by hand.
This factory would be busy even if an overhaul wasn't underway. All warheads have regular maintenance requirements. Their plastics age, and metal gears and wiring are weakened by the years and by exposure to radiation.
"If you're going to update the delivery systems, you would also then update the warheads in the missiles and the bombs that are with them." The US nuclear arsenal reveals its age each time troops fix a missile. That can occur as often as twice a week, but only if the equally old tools, or the truck carrying the tools, or the truck needed to transport the missile itself isn't also broken down, which is often.
Except the blast door wouldn't budge. The first 225-pound tow, or mule, as the troops call it, couldn't generate the power needed to pull back the door. Ageing nuclear weapons located in silos on private farms need to be regularly lifted out and taken to the base for repairs or maintenance.
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