What caused the Damascus Titan ICBM accident to occur?

What caused the Damascus Titan ICBM accident to occur?

On September 18, 1980, at about 6:30 p.m., an airman conducting maintenance on the Titan II missile dropped a wrench socket, which fell about eighty feet before hitting and piercing the skin on the rocket’s first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak.

What happened in Damascus Arkansas?

The Damascus Titan missile explosion (also called the Damascus accident) was a 1980 U.S. Broken Arrow incident involving a Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The incident began with a fuel leak at 6:30 p.m. on September 18, and culminated with the explosion at around 3:00 a.m. on September 19.

How many Titan II missile silos were in Arkansas?

Eighteen
Resulting from this was the Titan II Missile program, a Cold War weapons system featuring fifty-four launch complexes in three states. Eighteen were in Arkansas, from which ICBMs carrying nine-megaton nuclear warheads could be launched to strike targets as far as 5,500 miles away.

What happened to the Titan missiles?

After the two accidents in 1978 and 1980, respectively, deactivation of the Titan II ICBM system finally began in July 1982. The last Titan II missile, located at Silo 373-8 near Judsonia, Arkansas, was deactivated on 5 May 1987.

What is the most powerful nuke the US has?

The B83
The B83 is a variable-yield thermonuclear gravity bomb developed by the United States in the late 1970s and entered service in 1983. With a maximum yield of 1.2 megatons (5.0 PJ), it is the most powerful nuclear weapon in the United States nuclear arsenal. It was designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

How many Titan 2 silos were there?

54 Titan II missile
At the Titan Missile Museum, near Tucson, Arizona, visitors journey through time to stand on the front line of the Cold War. This preserved Titan II missile site, officially known as complex 571-7, is all that remains of the 54 Titan II missile sites that were on alert across the United States from 1963 to 1987.

Are Titan missiles still active?

Missile Site 8 in Green Valley, Arizona, is a national historic landmark and the home of the Titan Missile Museum. The Air Force-owned property houses the only remaining Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile complex left of the 54 that were active during the Cold War.