Cisco Grove Incident -- The Titan ICBM Program: The Other Missile
Cisco Grove Incident -- The Titan ICBM Program: The Other Missile
The SM-68 Titan
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Designation | SM-68 Titan I; SM-68B Titan II (the operational version in 1964) |
| Type | Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM); two-stage liquid-fueled |
| Range | Titan II: approximately 9,300 miles (15,000 km); capable of reaching virtually any target in the Soviet Union from American launch sites |
| Warhead | Titan II carried the W53 warhead with a yield of approximately 9 megatons -- one of the most powerful nuclear weapons ever deployed by the United States |
| Operational period | Titan I: 1962-1965; Titan II: 1963-1987 |
| Propulsion | Aerojet General Corporation was the primary developer of the Titan's liquid-fueled rocket engines; both the first and second stage engines were Aerojet products |
| Classification | Among the most highly classified operational systems in the U.S. arsenal in 1964 |
The Titan in 1964
In September 1964, the Titan II was one of the United States' primary strategic nuclear delivery systems. Fifty-four Titan II missiles were deployed in hardened silos across six U.S. Air Force bases. Each carried a 9-megaton warhead -- an order of magnitude more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
Aerojet's Sacramento facility manufactured the propulsion systems for this missile. Workers on the Titan program, like workers on Polaris, were not building peripheral equipment -- they were contributing to the most consequential weapons systems in human history.
The Dual Program Context
Shrum worked on both Polaris and Titan -- contributing to both the sea-based and land-based legs of the U.S. nuclear triad. This dual program exposure gave him:
- Familiarity with the engineering requirements of multiple rocket propulsion systems
- An understanding of both solid and liquid rocket motor designs
- Experience with the precision metallic components used in ballistic missile construction
- Security clearances appropriate to multiple classified programs
The breadth of his aerospace work makes his technical assessments more rather than less credible. He was not a single-program specialist but a multi-system aerospace worker.
