photograph by Accretion Disc via Flickr
Air Force Facility Missile Site 8 (Titan II ICBM Site 571-7), AZ: This is the sole remaining Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) complex of the 54 that were "on alert" during the Cold War between 1963 and 1987; as such, it is the single remaining example of the liquid-fueled ICBM launch facilities utilized by the Strategic Air Command. The Titan II missile carried the largest single warhead used in the ICBM program and was capable of destroying targets that Atlas, Titan I, and Minuteman I and II missiles could not. Built in response to the the "missile gap" panic of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Titan II Missile Site 571-7 provides a unique window into the design, construction, and operation of a weapon system built to survive a first-strike nuclear attack and be able to launch its missile if so ordered.