Part of the Sierra Nevada range can be used to hide American ICBMs.
The Cold War arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union led to many initiatives to ensure the survivability of each country’s nuclear deterrent.
Military expert Dave Majumdar said this idea comes in the context of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) continuously improving their precision attack capabilities.
At that time, Soviet technology had achieved many significant developments, allowing the country to accurately attack the US nuclear arsenal.
`The US engineering team believes that creating a solid underground base, located 1.5 km deep under the granite rock layer, will certainly ensure the survivability of ICBM forces against nuclear attacks,` historian Steven
Washington believes that the Sierra Nevada mountains are the perfect place to establish an underground base, because they are long and have a granite composition that meets the requirements.
ICBM-X is expected to be twice as large as the Soviet Union’s giant R-36 missile.
Expert Majumdar said the strangest point of this plan is that the launch site is located deep under a layer of hard rock to ensure secrecy.
This process requires a lot of preparation and is only suitable for counterattacks against the opponent.
The weapon proposed for this project is a missile codenamed `ICBM-X`, with a diameter of 3.9 m and a mass of up to 499 tons.
However, the estimated cost for the entire project was too expensive, while the effectiveness was not adequate, causing the Pentagon to decide to cancel the project right from the start.
Olivia