Minuteman Launch Facility R-02 (Romeo-02 LF), Meriden Wyoming

R-02 was one of those places where the Cold War hid in plain sight: a fenced patch of high plains north of Cheyenne, quiet enough to disappear into ranch country, but built to hold first a Minuteman missile and later the largest operational land-based ICBM the United States ever deployed. Its story is not one of a preserved museum or a famous mishap. Its value is more typical and, in some ways, more revealing: R-02 shows how the Peacekeeper era reached outward from F.E. Warren Air Force Base into ordinary Wyoming landscape, then receded through deactivation, treaty verification, and physical elimination.

Launch Facility R-02 was an unmanned missile silo / Launch Facility in Romeo Flight, controlled from R-01, the Romeo Flight Missile Alert Facility / Launch Control Center. 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. R-02 was originally built for the LGM-30B Minuteman I, later served in the LGM-30G Minuteman III force, and was then converted for the LGM-118A Peacekeeper.

The site is located north-northwest of Meriden in Goshen County, Wyoming, in the eastern part of the F.E. Warren missile field. Public Peacekeeper site-photo documentation identifies the same site as Francis E. Warren AF Missile Site R-02, Permanent Installation Number 9233, Installation Location Code GHYW, at 41-43-51, 104-25-11.

R-02 lay in open high-plains country north of Meriden and east-northeast of the R-01 control site. Its rural setting was not incidental. Minuteman and later Peacekeeper facilities were dispersed across a broad missile field so that no single attack could destroy a concentrated force. The field around F.E. Warren stretched beyond the base itself into southeastern Wyoming, western Nebraska, and northern Colorado, with launch facilities positioned along county roads, ranchland, and agricultural landscapes.

As a Launch Facility, R-02 was normally unmanned. Missile combat crews served in the underground Launch Control Center at R-01, while security forces, maintenance teams, communications specialists, and other support personnel visited the LF when required. The site's visible surface form was deliberately plain: a fenced compound, an access road, surface utilities and lighting, security-related equipment, hardened communications features, and belowgrade launcher components. The operational core was underground, where the launcher structure and supporting systems connected R-02 to Romeo Flight's command-and-control network.

Public exterior photographs from 2013 document R-02 shortly before or during the broader post-Peacekeeper disposal period. The photographs are labeled as general views rather than detailed feature studies, but they confirm the public site identity and preserve a visual record of the launch facility before later landscape changes associated with silo elimination and disposition. For an ordinary LF such as R-02, these photographs are important because most Peacekeeper launch facilities were not preserved and have limited publicly accessible documentation.

R-02 is inactive and decommissioned. It was one of the 50 former F.E. Warren Peacekeeper launch facilities addressed by the post-Peacekeeper arms-control and disposal program. Public Air Force reporting in 2013 stated that the United States had chosen to permanently eliminate 50 previously deactivated F.E. Warren Peacekeeper launch facilities under New START. The stated method for the Warren Peacekeeper launch facilities was to fill the silos with earth and gravel; the Air Force Civil Engineer Center also described treaty verification requirements, post-dismantlement visibility, grading, and the retention of some ancillary features such as fencing, access roads, and underground cables depending on site conditions.

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

Chronology

• 1962 Construction planning and field work for the F.E. Warren Minuteman missile field were underway during the early 1960s.
• 1963-07-01 The 90th Strategic Missile Wing was activated at F.E. Warren Air Force Base.
• 1964-07-01 The 400th Strategic Missile Squadron stood up as part of the F.E. Warren Minuteman force.
• 1965-06 The 400th Strategic Missile Squadron, including Romeo Flight, became operational with Minuteman IB missiles.
• 1965-06-15 F.E. Warren's 200th Minuteman missile was placed on alert, completing the original 90th Strategic Missile Wing Minuteman force.
• 1972 F.E. Warren began major force-modernization work associated with conversion from Minuteman I to Minuteman III.
• 1974-09-03 The last Minuteman IB at F.E. Warren went off alert.
• 1975 Minuteman III replaced Minuteman I at F.E. Warren; Minuteman II was never deployed at the base.
• 1982-11-22 President Ronald Reagan announced the plan to deploy the MX / Peacekeeper missile at F.E. Warren.
• 1984-07 Construction began for Peacekeeper support facilities at F.E. Warren.
• 1986-10-10 The first Peacekeeper site at F.E. Warren was strategically postured.
• 1986-12-16 F.E. Warren achieved Peacekeeper initial operating capability.
• 1988 Fifty Peacekeeper missiles were in service at F.E. Warren.
• 1991-09-01 The 90th Strategic Missile Wing was redesignated the 90th Missile Wing.
• 2005-09-19 The Peacekeeper missile mission ended at F.E. Warren; no Peacekeeper ICBMs remained on strategic alert in the 400th Missile Squadron.
• 2011-02 New START entered into force, setting the arms-control framework for later elimination of deactivated silos.
• 2013-08-23 The Air Force announced permanent elimination of 50 previously deactivated F.E. Warren Peacekeeper launch facilities.
• 2013-08-04 Public site photographs documented R-02 as Francis E. Warren AF Missile Site R-02, PIN 9233 / ILC GHYW.
• 2014 Public Air Force reporting stated that elimination of the 50 former F.E. Warren Peacekeeper launch facilities was scheduled to be completed by December 2014.

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

All Peacekeeper Missile Silo Locations

All Minuteman/Peacekeeper Missile Silo Locations