Launch Facility R-06 (), Meriden Wyoming

Launch Facility R-06 was one of the unmanned Minuteman-origin missile silos assigned to Romeo Flight in the F.E. Warren Air Force Base missile field. It was associated with R-01 Missile Alert Facility and the 400th Missile Squadron, later the only operational Peacekeeper missile squadron in the United States. Public Peacekeeper field documentation identifies the site as Francis E. Warren AF Missile Site R-06, PIN 8699, ILC GHZA, at 41-39-14, 104-39-07. The site lies in Goshen County, Wyoming, near Meriden, in the dispersed Romeo Flight area north and northeast of Cheyenne.

At the surface, R-06 was not meant to look dramatic. That was the point. Its Cold War meaning came from the contrast between a small fenced rural launch site and the strategic weapon once hidden beneath it. Like the other Romeo Flight launch facilities, R-06 began as a Minuteman launch facility, was later part of the F.E. Warren Minuteman III force, and then became one of the former Minuteman silos converted for the LGM-118A Peacekeeper program.

R-06 was sited in the open agricultural and rangeland landscape of southeastern Wyoming, separated from its parent control facility and from neighboring launch facilities so that the Romeo Flight missiles would not present a single compact target. Public field photography documents general views of the site and notes light poles and an Improved Minuteman Physical Security System pole. Those features are consistent with a former Minuteman/Peacekeeper Launch Facility: an unmanned, fenced, remotely monitored silo location with an access road, surface security and utility features, and a buried launcher structure beneath the visible site area.

R-06 was part of the F.E. Warren Minuteman field, one of the large dispersed solid-fuel ICBM networks built to replace the slower, more maintenance-intensive liquid-fueled Atlas and Titan era. In the Minuteman system, the missile silo itself was normally unmanned. Missile combat crews worked from the associated Launch Control Center, while maintenance, security, communications, and support teams visited launch facilities as needed. For R-06, the associated control site was R-01, the Romeo Flight Missile Alert Facility / Launch Control Center.

F.E. Warren's Minuteman force entered the broader operational sequence in the mid-1960s and was later modernized. Warren's public history states that the base moved from Minuteman I to Minuteman III and that Minuteman II was never deployed at Warren. R-06 therefore represents the common Warren pattern: original Minuteman I service, later Minuteman III service, and then Peacekeeper conversion in the 400th Missile Squadron's former Minuteman flights.

R-06 is no longer an active missile launch facility. The Peacekeeper force at F.E. Warren was deactivated after the end of the Cold War and the changing arms-control environment of the early 2000s. Air Force reporting and Warren public history identify 2005-09-19 as the formal end of the Peacekeeper mission at F.E. Warren. After Peacekeeper deactivation, the former Peacekeeper launch facilities became part of the New START elimination program. F.E. Warren announced in 2013 that fifty previously deactivated F.E. Warren Peacekeeper launch facilities would be permanently eliminated, with current plans calling for the silos to be filled with earth and gravel rather than destroyed by older implosion methods.

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

Chronology

• 1964 Approximate early operational period for F.E. Warren Minuteman launch facilities in the Romeo Flight field.
• 1970s F.E. Warren Minuteman facilities were modernized from Minuteman I to Minuteman III; Warren public history states that Minuteman II was never deployed at the base.
• 1980s Selected former Minuteman silos in Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, and Tango Flights were converted for LGM-118A Peacekeeper operation.
• 1986 Peacekeeper reached initial operational capability at F.E. Warren.
• 1988 Fifty Peacekeeper missiles were on alert in modified Minuteman III silos at F.E. Warren.
• 2005-09-19 The Peacekeeper mission formally ended at F.E. Warren.
• 2013-08-23 F.E. Warren announced that fifty previously deactivated F.E. Warren Peacekeeper launch facilities had been selected for permanent elimination under New START.
• 2014 F.E. Warren's public release stated that plans called for elimination of the former Peacekeeper launch facilities north of Cheyenne by December 2014.

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

All Peacekeeper Missile Silo Locations

All Minuteman/Peacekeeper Missile Silo Locations