Launch Facility R-08 (Romeo-08), Meriden Wyoming

Launch Facility R-08 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-08, PIN 8701, ILC GHZC, at 41-45-16, 104-41-36. The site lies in Goshen County, Wyoming, near Meriden, in the dispersed Romeo Flight area northeast of Cheyenne.

R-08 looked like a fenced utility site on the high plains, but it belonged to one of the most consequential transformations in American missile history. Beneath its low profile was a former Minuteman silo converted for Peacekeeper, the Cold War missile whose power made each reused launch facility more important than its quiet rural setting suggested.

R-08 was sited in open agricultural and rangeland country, separated from its parent control facility and from neighboring launch facilities so that the Romeo Flight missiles would not form one compact target. As a former Minuteman/Peacekeeper Launch Facility, R-08 would have functioned as an unmanned, fenced, remotely monitored silo location with an access road, surface security and utility features, and the buried launcher structure beneath the visible site area.

The public field-photo record for R-08 is somewhat more descriptive than for many ordinary launch facilities. In addition to general views and silo-area photographs, it identifies a Hardened Intersite Cable System / HICS junction, a HICS junction data plate, and HICS junction pressurization valves.

R-08 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-08, the associated control site was R-01, the Romeo Flight Missile Alert Facility / Launch Control Center.

R-08 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 plans calling for the silos to be filled with earth and gravel rather than destroyed by older implosion methods.

For R-08 specifically, no separate public disposal, transfer, FUDS/DERP, or environmental-cleanup record was identified. The current visible condition should therefore be described cautiously: the site is documented in public Peacekeeper field listings, including photographs of the silo area and HICS junction features, but current ownership, access, and surface remains should be verified locally.

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