The lovely Elizabeth and I spent the better part of the last week driving across country, to set up the winter Defense Tech HQ in Los Angeles. We didn’t realize how many nuclear weapons we passed along the way: the old warheads at the Pantex facility, just outside Amarillo; the 1,914 doomsday devices at Kirtland Air Force Base, in Albuquerque.
When we drive back in the Spring, we’ll know. Because the wonks at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Federation of American Scientists have teamed up to make a Google Earth map of the nearly nearly 10,000 nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal.
The satellite map — drawn from this Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists study — “offers a fresh accounting of the extensive U.S. nuclear inventory, and its dynamic graphics let site users ‘fly’ onscreen across a sprawling network of military facilities in 12 states and in Europe,” a press release reads.
The researchers emphasize that none of the locations is secret. All have been known for years to house nuclear weapons and are highly secure military facilities that do not pose a direct security risk to surrounding communities…
The U.S. nuclear arsenal currently is housed at 18 military facilities in 12 states and six European countries. The highest concentration is at the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific in Bangor, Washington, which is home to more than 2,300 warheads probably the most nuclear weapons at any one site in the world. At any given moment, nearly half of these warheads are aboard ballistic-missile submarines in the Pacific…
Over the past decade, the United States has removed nuclear weapons from three states California, Virginia and South Dakota and one foreign country, Greece. And during that time, the estimated number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile dropped from approximately 12,500 to just below 10,000. At its height, in the mid-1960s, the U.S. stockpile boasted some 32,000 warheads…
[Today], more than two-thirds of the warheads are stored at bases for operational ballistic missiles and bombers. Only about 28 percent of the warheads have been moved to separate storage facilities, such as the massive underground vault at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which stores more than 1,900 warheads the second largest cache in the arsenal.
Hmmm… maybe we’ll take the Northern route home.
FYI: While reviewing this on Google Earth is certainly nice, a very cool feature that Google Maps introduced some time ago is the ability to view Google Earth overlays (.kmz files) on the web. Just paste the .kmz link into the search box, and it’s there in no time.
Here’s the Google Maps view of the above file:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=http://www.nrdc.org/media/docs/061109.kmz&ie=UTF8&z=4&t=h&om=1
Well, don’t come to far north on the trip back. You will know you have come too far north by the glow in Washintion state.
Ellsworth and Grand Forks have none?
Norfolk has none?
Pearl Harbor?
Nothing in California?
If you look at Nellis AFB, zoom into N36 15′ 18.9″ / W114 58′ 13.62″ and you will be looking at the roof of one of several underground bunkers. This is where the nuclear warheads are stored. I know this because I used to work on the other side of the double electric fence (in the minimum security federal prison camp that is now closed) and every now and then they would have “Bomb Movements” and we inmates all had to go indoors while they guarded the doors with M-16 carrying air force members. Sometimes the bombs would go to the base and fly away.. sometimees they would go out off base and drive away on citys streets. Most disturbing.
Question — Why doesn’t Google ma the nukes that are in China, Russia, North Korea, Lybia, etc, etc, etc? Why is always the US that these monsters try to target? Yes Google is run by monsters(Defined as anyone that LIKES to see humans, including their own families) murdered? Since the United States is soooooo evil, why don’t we just go ahead and launch? Why does the United States have to be the one to ALWAYS have our people killed first?
LOL. Blame google? Google had nothing to do with it, it’s a plugin to Google Earth!
“Because the wonks at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Federation of American Scientists have teamed up to make a Google Earth map of the nearly nearly 10,000 nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal.“
Blame the NRDC and FAS (the “wonks”)! And the Film Actors Guild too. FYI, China isn’t the US and doesn’t tell the world where their weapons are stored.
Why blame Google? Because it’s a lot easier to blame the big money-making corporation than the liberal morons who create the problems.
All of this was made available to the russians and the rest of the UN following the cold war which there was an aggreement to oversee nuclear arms reduction in both the United States and Russia. This has all been public knowledge since the late 1980s!!
The first line of attack won’t be with the ICBMs in North America, but with the shell game of Nuclear submarines spanning across the Atlantic and Pacific. I’d say that is enough to keep them at bay!!
If you think for one second that China or Greenpeace is going to be able to mount a successful attack on any of our nuke stockpiles, you’re nuts. Also, the information is public knowledge, the intel guys on the other side really don’t need google earth to know where Nellis AFB is
I understand the need for free speech, I understand the need for some people to disclose classfied information, in a warped belief that they are doing good for the nation. Now, the disclosing of the location of all the bases that house our nukes, where is the logic in that. Granted, the “enemy nations,” such as China, Russia, France etc know where these silos are just as America knows where the silos are, that’s just proper intel gathering of the military nations. Yet, disclosing and mapping it all on google so a terrorist who may not have governmental resources can know decide where, when and how to cause a massive explosion (if capable of breeching security), where is the logic in that. This map is a direct threat to national security for all citizens, especially those that towns and cities near these bases. This map has just given the terrorist more ammunition to try and create a catastrophic disaster. Now not only do we have to be fearful of the democratic house trying to downsize the military if a democratic president wins in 2008, God help us all, you know they will down size the military, have more leaks the a broken toliet and these “secret” and “secure” bases will now be targeted by assholes (green peace folks, anti-American folks), terrorist and any nut job out there. The very nature of mapping the silos is terrible, shows the use of poor judgement and that no matter how many degrees a person may receive in college, they can still be a complete jackass by revealing information that is dangerous to the country and to our fellow citizens. Yet, what can one expect when people only care about themselves and not the nation or their fellow citizen. This map will come back and bite us in the ass, it takes only one crazed individual, one crazed “political liberal wing group…” it takes only one terrorist cell of brainwashed individuals to try and do harm to those bases. This map should not be allowed to be published, it should not be allowed to be viewed by the public, no matter how “general knowledge” it may be.
I will blame Google. They are for the most part left leaning and any harm that could be done to this country is good. How is it that Google missed all of our nukes abroad? Why don’t you tell people where they are that would be nice. Things are secret because they need to be. In the time of a real war the people at Google that released this information would be jailed. Now the idiot terrorists know where our bombs are and they might just work on a way to get some. If they do I hope San Francisco gets one and not some American city.
okay!!! this is idiotic.…..yes, NATIONS may know where they are at, but terrorists use this type of info overload against us!! now, a smart terrorist would google the nukes and locations. then, he or she would then infiltrate the town, then perhaps kill and commandeer an ID card or whatever to gain access.…..I agree with the above, that tings are secret because they NEED to be secret. SECRETS are so WE can KEEP an EDGE over our ENEMIES, not so we can stiff the American Public. I.E. Boston Tea Party was a SECRET affair/operation. Do you think if the Brits knew about our forefathers secrets, we would be a nation today????? why do you think the terrrorists try sooo hard to keep their operations secret??? not for harm against their so-called people, but so their ENEMIES (WHICH, BY THE WAY FOR YOU LIBERALS OUT THERE, THE ENEMY OF THE TERRORIST IS US!!!) CANNOT gain information and destroy the edge that THEIR SECRETS HOLD!! remember 9/11??? do you think if they did not keep their secrets that situation would have happened?? What this has done, is just put the surrounding citizens of the town or city in jeopardy. you don’t necessarily need to break in full force with a frontal attack, just observe the people working on post!!
Why would any terrorist care where our nukes are when they can buy what they want from Iran, India, of the old Soviet states. Note that there were NO nukes in the twin towers.
PS: Note to all you liberal haters out there, free speach also protects your right to hate, as is so obvious in these posts.
Hey, there may be some ordinance there or there may not. 10,000 sites may be the real info or not. Where the ordinance is today may not be were it is in the morning. Somebody has the full time job to keep these munitions safe and I’m sure that there is no fear of them letting a public search tool reveal their current and real status.
I feel that the actions by google showing locations and types of nukes borders on treason. They took the time and effort to do this„ why? Does google want a ribbon? Why doesnt google track the taliban or the insurgents in iraq or tell Israel when the rockets have launched? Do something good for America with your technology instead of betraying sensitive info to the world.
The world doesnt need to know this info.
Yeah, everyone should just relax. First off, this information was already available to the public via the FAS and NRDC. Secondly, there is no way that Google would be authorized to release this information without first vetting it with US government authorities. Thirdly, any terrorist worth a grain of salt is going to have access to superior intelligence than Google Earth. What might be compromising is George Tirebiter’s comment regarding actual operational details at Nellis AFB. Why someone would criticize the release of purportedly “sensitive” material while confirming its validity is beyond me. There are much bigger threats to national security than google earth, the FAS, or the NRDC. So please, just relax. The people that handle these things are professionals, that’s why they have their jobs and you have yours.
Break your LONG comments into paragraphs. It’s easier to read.
I am just a wife and mother who saw a tv article by pbs about a reporter who was able to walk into places that should have been secure to say the least. After looking on the internet i am shocked
by the things you can find on here. If I could find it im sure a terrorist could. Don’t get me wrong i am not critisizing you for this. It has made me more aware of things that I did not know.
I think more americans should get there heads out of ther butts and do more to protect ourselves. It doesn’t look like the government is doing such a great job after all.
i think you guys are all idiots. you seriously think that google earth knows the exact locations of all of the united states’s nukes. hahaha you’re idiots
i think you guys are all idiots. you seriously think that google earth knows the exact locations of all of the united states’s nukes. hahaha you’re idiots