U.S. to Remove 1st Missile Under Treaty

Missile experts next week will remove a Minuteman 2 missile from the first ICBM silo to be deactivated under initiatives to cut U.S. and Soviet nuclear forces, the Strategic Air Command announced Friday.

The single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile will be lifted from the silo at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, said Tech. Sgt. Alan Dockery, a SAC spokesman.

He said all 150 Minuteman 2s at Ellsworth, in addition to another 150 each at Malmstrom Air Base in Montana and Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, will be retired over the next few years.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed by President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev last July envisioned the elimination of 35% of Soviet long-range nuclear weapons and 28% of the U.S. arsenal.

The START treaty called for the cuts to be made over a seven-year period, but Bush, in announcing major unilateral reductions last September, proposed that the destruction of long-range nuclear missiles covered by the treaty be accelerated.