Minuteman Launch Facility Q-03 (Quebec-03 LF), Chugwater Wyoming

Q-03 was one of the quiet silos in Quebec Flight: not the preserved control site at Q-01, not the headline accident site at Q-10, and not the first Quebec launch facility documented with a Peacekeeper canister. Its value is quieter but still important. At Q-03, the national story of Minuteman, Peacekeeper, arms control, and post-Cold War disposal was reduced to one fenced rectangle of Wyoming prairie about 10 miles south of Chugwater.

Launch Facility Q-03 was an unmanned missile silo / Launch Facility in Quebec Flight, controlled from Q-01, the Quebec 01 Missile Alert Facility / Launch Control Facility. The site belonged to the F.E. Warren Air Force Base missile field, the 90th Strategic Missile Wing during the Strategic Air Command era, and the 400th Strategic Missile Squadron / later 400th Missile Squadron during the Minuteman and Peacekeeper years. It was originally built for LGM-30B Minuteman I, later served in the Minuteman III force, and was then converted for the LGM-118A Peacekeeper.

The site is located near Chugwater in Platte County, Wyoming. Public Peacekeeper site-photo documentation identifies the same site as Francis E. Warren AF Missile Site Q-03, Permanent Installation Number 9414, Installation Location Code GHYL, at 41-36-24, 104-49-59. The coordinate identifies the former launch-facility area rather than the public highway or the Q-01 control site. Q-03 is inactive and decommissioned; it was part of the former Peacekeeper launch-facility group selected for post-retirement elimination and disposition.

Q-03 lay about 10.4 miles south of Chugwater, north of Cheyenne, in high-plains ranch and agricultural country. The landscape was central to the purpose of the system. F.E. Warren's Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles were not concentrated on the base; they were spread across a broad missile field in Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado so that no single attack could easily destroy the entire force.

As a Launch Facility, Q-03 was normally unmanned. Missile combat crews worked in the underground Launch Control Center at Q-01, while maintenance teams, security forces, communications specialists, and other support personnel visited Q-03 when required. The surface installation was intentionally plain: fenced launch-facility grounds, access, utility poles, lighting or security-related equipment, support fixtures, and the hardened launcher structure below or at grade. The site did not operate as a crewed command post; it was one of the ten launch facilities assigned to Quebec Flight.

Public exterior photographs taken before final post-Peacekeeper disposition show Q-03 as a fenced rural installation with power poles, wind vane, security fencing, and remaining aboveground support features. Those images are useful because former Peacekeeper launch facilities were later subject to treaty-driven elimination, and many ordinary LFs left few public records after the missile mission ended.

Q-03 is inactive and decommissioned. Public access should not be assumed.

For the full Quebec Flight narrative, see Q-01 Missile Alert Facility / Launch Control Center

Chronology

• 1963-01-23 Construction began for Quebec Flight facilities in the F.E. Warren Minuteman field, according to published Minuteman construction milestone data.
• 1964-06-03 Quebec Flight construction was completed, according to published Minuteman construction milestone data.
• 1965-04-26 Quebec Flight facilities were turned over to Strategic Air Command, according to published Minuteman construction milestone data.
• 1965-06 The 400th Strategic Missile Squadron, including Quebec Flight, became operational with Minuteman IB missiles.
• 1975 Minuteman III replaced Minuteman I at F.E. Warren; Minuteman II was not deployed at the base.
• 1986 Peacekeeper conversion work brought Quebec Flight into the only operational Peacekeeper missile field.
• 1986-12 Quebec Flight became operational as part of the Peacekeeper force.
• 1988 Fifty Peacekeeper missiles were in service at F.E. Warren.
• 2002-10 Peacekeeper deactivation began.
• 2005-09-19 The Peacekeeper missile mission ended at F.E. Warren, with no Peacekeepers remaining on strategic alert in the 400th Missile Squadron.
• 2011-02-05 New START entered into force.
• 2013-08-23 F.E. Warren announced permanent elimination of 50 previously deactivated Peacekeeper launch facilities.
• 2014-12 The Air Force's public plan called for elimination of F.E. Warren Peacekeeper launch facilities by December 2014.

Read about the Peacekeeper Missile at F.E. Warren AFB

All Peacekeeper Missile Silo Locations

All Minuteman/Peacekeeper Missile Silo Locations