Peacekeeper Advanced Intertial Reference Sphere (AIRS) floating in liquid.

[sferrin]

Apparently the MMIII fleet is getting these now.

 

[flateric]

Hi-res version

 

[Mercurius Cantabrigiensis]

Apparently the MMIII fleet is getting these now.

Not that I've heard. The Minuteman guidance replacement programme is replacing the original NS-20 guidance package with the new NS-50, but this retains the existing stabilised platform.

Since only 100 Peacekeepers were deployed, there would not be enough AIRS hardware to re-equip the MMIII force. Perhaps its was considered as an enhancement for part of the force under the Minuteman Elite concept, but I haven't heard much about the latter idea in recent years

 

[sferrin]

Apparently the MMIII fleet is getting these now.

Not that I've heard. The Minuteman guidance replacement programme is replacing the original NS-20 guidance package with the new NS-50, but this retains the existing stabilised platform.

Since only 100 Peacekeepers were deployed, there would not be enough AIRS hardware to re-equip the MMIII force. Perhaps its was considered as an enhancement for part of the force under the Minuteman Elite concept, but I haven't heard much about the latter idea in recent years

Interesting article on the AIRS

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Airs.html

"With the planned retirement of the Peacekeeper missile under the terms of the START II treaty (signed 3 January 1993) by 2004, the Minuteman III will be left as the sole U.S. land-based ICBM through the year 2020. Because of this shift in importance, the Minuteman III force is to be upgraded to the same standards of accuracy of the Peacekeeper. Accordingly, between 1998 and 2002, 652 new AIRS guidance units will be purchased and fitted to the existing Minuteman III."

Of course the article was written in '97.

 

[Mercurius Cantabrigiensis]

I saw that article, and guessed that you had. But the concept seems to have died. Had Northrop Grumman received a contract to build close to 500 systems, they would almost certainly have publicised it.

 

[Forest Green]

Apparently the MMIII fleet is getting these now.

The quoted accuracy for these is incredible, if you managed to fit them on MaRVs it would render GPS and terminal homing redundant - drift less than 1.5×10−5 °/h. Over a 30 minute flight over 14,000km that equates to 1.8m.

More pictures.

 

[Forest Green]

Not that I've heard. The Minuteman guidance replacement programme is replacing the original NS-20 guidance package with the new NS-50, but this retains the existing stabilised platform.

Since only 100 Peacekeepers were deployed, there would not be enough AIRS hardware to re-equip the MMIII force. Perhaps its was considered as an enhancement for part of the force under the Minuteman Elite concept, but I haven't heard much about the latter idea in recent years

Actually only 50 were ever deployed even though 118 were built.

https://fas.org/nuke/norris/nuc_01009701a_181.pdf

 

[zjz]

This Isn't A Sci-Fi Prop, It's A Doomsday Navigator For America's Deadliest Cold War ICBM

The Peacemaker missile's navigation suite featured the most precise and complex self-contained gyro system ever built. It had 19,000 individual parts.

www.thedrive.com