@@OrangeC7 Just tell the security the plan and they will just laugh it off. Works every time. I managed to launch 24 ICBMs this way without the security noticing a thing. Update: 24 is the limit on how many times you can get away with it.
James Dingley is the 21st century's answer to James Burke. The presentation style is so similar. I still find it hard to believe this is an independent production and not financed by the BBC. It's genuinely incredible.
My thoughts have also gone to James Burke. Connections was a mainstay of my childhood. James's timing is amazing. There are so few presenters out there who actually move and hit their marks as well as him.
Finally theres a tutorial on this! I've been trying and failing to launch a nuke for years and this tutorial actually worked for me! Thanks Atomic Frontier!
I’m stuck on the big red button part. Do I press it once? Or do I press the green button at the same time? This guy from New Zealand is telling me that had relations with my mum. I hope it’s not true.
@@MarioGoatse Apparently it's some sort of "safety switch" where you have to press both at the same time to avoid accidentially pressing it, so you need to press both at the same time, I hope I helped!
The Titan missile museum near Green Valley, AZ lets amateur radio operators use the multiband antenna on special occasions. It's a big flex in the world of radio to say you're talking on an antenna that used to receive launch codes.
Doesn't need to be a special occasion. They just need to be open, you need to sign the logbook, then you can plug in and Ham away. I don't think the cable is even locked.
Nicely done, and that from a former crewmember. There was a minor mistake, but I suspect only an actual crew member would have spotted it. Loved the code for the BVLC. On the simulator where I was stationed, it was SACSUX.
I was actually having a crisis last night because I wasn’t sure if he was actually at a silo or it was all green screen. I’m still not sure if it is or not.
Nuclear weapons, biblically accurate angel antennae, and the Dingley swagger? You know you’re in for a good time! I hope you’ve read Command & Control, it adds so much more context to these facilities.
about 7 years ago, Veritasium made a video on the same topic. I just rewatched it, and your storytelling is SO much more compelling. another great vid!
Good video. The Titan II silo had side vents for the exhaust plume; two separate tunnels to the surface that exhausted either side of the silo door. They're visible at 9.53 in the vid.
At 6:01: "Fill the remaining tank with 90,000 tons of liquid oxygen." I don't think the Titan I's thrust was quite up to the task of lifting that much :-)
I can see how someone not using the metric system can make this mistake... the fact that "a ton" has double meaning in english probably doesn't help either
@@Mic_Glow In the areas where I've lived for the past 55 years, a "ton" has always meant "2,000 pounds", unless it had a "long" or "metric" specifier (and it wasn't used to generically mean "a lot", as in "that cost me a ton of money").
I liked your large Coke bottle with Mentors to demonstrate the hypergolic reaction between hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. Well produced video, compliments! Greetings, Anthony
@@thekaxmax I dont think its all pre-programmed. It wouldnt be that accurate if it was just all pre-programmed behavior. They are only programming in the target and the launch sequence is probably also preprogrammed. But once its going back down towards its target it cant just hope the wind is going in the right direction
About a week ago the Corridor Crew had a video about the true size of a nuclear explosion, putting a lot of it into perspective. And now... Now we have been taught how the nukes would have been launched. Remember people, nukes are not cool. Nukes destroy a LOT. Amazing video as always, James. ♥
I visited the place 3 years ago. A MUST go when you are in the Phoenix area. Beautiful but deadly.... and an MUST see for Star Trek "First contact" fans. Very nice video. Thanks
4:30 i like how they left the gaping cut out to remove the plutonium sphere of the warhead, certainmy with a circular saw, and left a gaping hole in the missile like that.
I'm new to the channel and I gotta say your content really hits the Rollercoaster, your channel is underrated and it hurts me to see other people with unbelievably unnecessary waste of time contents get more than 1 or 2 mil subs and when it comes to science or to something educational you only get the crumbs. What a generation we live in eh? Keep doing what you're doing, it will prosper sooner than you think. Kudos 👍
Sitting in one of these must be one of the weirder Jobs you can do. You know... waiting for doomsday knowing you might even catch a Nuke before/after you fire yourself one. Just a though also is that there might be an US Silo pointing at a Russian one wich has the same target in vise versa.
It wasn't really that bad. Politics aside, we had a very macabre sort of trust with the opposition. We trusted each other not to go off half-cocked. We knew that they knew that we were ready to pull the trigger, and they knew the vice versa. Unless something really crazy happened, we felt pretty sure it was going to be a slow day.
@@sparc77 You actually worked in one of these? Thanks for the comment then i feel honored! May i grab the opportunity and ask what like the average workday looked like? As a Kid i always thought they had to provide some sort of entertainment so you dont get bored to sleep beeing there. Is there actually something to do apart from beeing ready for the worst case all the time?
@@NewRSM1994 It did get boring at times. I was in the 533rd SMS at McConnell AFB in Kansas. I was in my early 20s at that time. A typical day (it was called an "alert") started with predeparture briefing at 0700. For the most part that consisted of them telling us if there were any issues going on that we needed to know about. Then we would load up in our crew vehicle and drive out to the site (unless it had snowed and then we would take a Huey out to the site). Once there, our commander would authenticate our identity and then we would go downstairs to the control center and do a crew changeover where we verify that all the classified documents are accounted for and we are up to date on the status of the missile. After the other crew departs, we would do some daily operations which included a top to bottom inspection of the site. That usually took a couple of hours. If there was any maintenance going on, we had to keep track of what they were doing. The rest of the regular day we would do training packages, receive many communications, and support any other maintenance requirements. After the maintenance teams had left for the day, we would settle down (often switch to more comfortable clothing) and spend the rest of the afternoon, evening and night studying for college classes (if you were taking one) watch TV (believe it or not, the most popular TV show among the crews was "The Muppet Show"), read, play music etc. After 6pm, we went to split shifts. Two people would go to bed and two people would stay awake. Then at midnight, we would do a midnight walk through and then the two who had stayed awake would go to bed and the two who had slept early would remain on duty the rest of the night. During all that time, we constantly got messages from the HQ which had to be checked to see if they were launch messages or not. Finally, somewhere between 8am and 9am the relief crew would arrive and we would do the reverse of when we arrived. Once the relief crew took possession of the site, we would go topside and take the same vehicle they had arrived in back to the base and then stand down. Overall, an alert would last about 30 hours. The day we returned was a recoup day and were had the rest of that day off. Then next two days would usually involve some form of training (unless it was a weekend). Then the whole thing started over again. All in all we went on an alert every 3 days. For the most part, it was a good job to have. We didn't have to worry about being deployed overseas or anything like that. But it also had some down sides. In those days, college age kids had a lot of animosity toward missile crewmen. But overall, we had each others' backs so we never lacked for friends.
the fact we, as a species, built not only one, but multiple of these silos all around the globe just destroys my heart. Not only because of it shows how brutal and ruthless we can be, but also how, if we tried, we could set our minds to such great things, instead of worrying if we will kill each other
I was finally able to visit this facility in October 2023. The tech at the time is beyond impressive. The tour guide I had was absolutely amazing as well. Your ending is something i started to ponder after i visited as well, but more in regard to the air force bombers who will drop bombs to possibly not even have a place to land when their mission is completed..
One of the most worrying aspects for me is that you can't test the final design until you actually launch it. The amount of effort to make sure it hits the target first time must be insane.
In theory you can test the launch site however many times you like with a missile without payload. There should be plenty of chances to test things out.
@@mbg8733 Even in case of payload you probably could test without need of an actual nuke. Basically the implosion system stays intact but fissile material is removed, in addition you put special "computers" in to make sure that the implosion works well that transmit data to other computer that transmits it out to be received (all in almost an instant before they all are destroyed). Name of it is "High Explosive Radio Telemetry" if anyone is curious.
I was there in 1991 not long after the museum was begun. They really did a great job restoring it, as it was totally non operational at that time. All you could really do was turn the key. Guess I'll have to go back.
This is a fantastic video! Systems like this are such a masterpiece of engineering. I really think if humanity fully understood this whole cold war thing, we'd be a lot nicer to each other now. Videos like this show how far it went... Imagine all those resources that went into one launch facility, if that work could have gone into other kinds of human infrastructure. Life would be incredible.
amazing. how did you get access to this ? this site is decommissioned but still I can't imagine someone could visiting and filming. Congrats, great video !
@@AndreaZzzXXX There are also multiple Minuteman missile museums across the midwest too, with the full bunker, command center, etc setup, very similar to those still used today, like the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site by Cooperstown, North Dakota.
Yup, been more than half a year since the last one! In that time I finished my Master's thesis, got really sick (serves me right), toured the continent (I've now got enough videos for month episodes until ~April), and started a Phd in space robotics. It's good to be back publishing videos again
Filming this was a blast! It's great to be back making videos
woah woah woah calm down james. dont blast anything!!
Not sure "Keep looking up" is the suitable catch phrase when talking about nuclear missiles :-)
hehe a blast
Glad to have you back in my feed, man!
I will use this information responsibly :)
Thanks! Now I know how to launch if I’m ever visiting a missile silo.
Bring a stick and some tape for the second key!
@@hunterlang578But you'll need to get it past security... The best excuse I can come up with is "I'm blind"
@@OrangeC7 Just tell the security the plan and they will just laugh it off. Works every time. I managed to launch 24 ICBMs this way without the security noticing a thing.
Update: 24 is the limit on how many times you can get away with it.
@@j100j Man you got it good apparently its a violation national security
@@j100j oh it was you launching it on my neighbours...
this absolute chad comes back after half a year just to tell us how to launch a nuke
This information is going to be useful in the near future.
I was thinking the same thing, glad he’s back!
Chad frontier
Eh!..did a dam good job doing it!!!..got my attention
58 stations seems low, even for un-classified numbers......
This channel is ridiculously underrated. How can someone produce such quality content and only have around 200k subscribers?
Algorithms
Because people like reels and pornogrphy ⁷more 😊😊😊
@@paintpaintpaintco.6039Mister Best
Numbers are numbers
Because the host only uploaded every 6 months a video. That's why
The Butterfly Valve Lock code saying "URDEAD" is a nice touch
James Dingley is the 21st century's answer to James Burke. The presentation style is so similar.
I still find it hard to believe this is an independent production and not financed by the BBC. It's genuinely incredible.
The Big Black Cock? What?
His presentation style reminds me of Dan Cruickshank.
My thoughts have also gone to James Burke. Connections was a mainstay of my childhood. James's timing is amazing. There are so few presenters out there who actually move and hit their marks as well as him.
Its so well scripted and presented
Finally theres a tutorial on this! I've been trying and failing to launch a nuke for years and this tutorial actually worked for me! Thanks Atomic Frontier!
I’m stuck on the big red button part. Do I press it once? Or do I press the green button at the same time? This guy from New Zealand is telling me that had relations with my mum. I hope it’s not true.
@@MarioGoatse Apparently it's some sort of "safety switch" where you have to press both at the same time to avoid accidentially pressing it, so you need to press both at the same time, I hope I helped!
The Titan missile museum near Green Valley, AZ lets amateur radio operators use the multiband antenna on special occasions. It's a big flex in the world of radio to say you're talking on an antenna that used to receive launch codes.
Doesn't need to be a special occasion. They just need to be open, you need to sign the logbook, then you can plug in and Ham away. I don't think the cable is even locked.
@@medivalone Oh cool!!
Nicely done, and that from a former crewmember. There was a minor mistake, but I suspect only an actual crew member would have spotted it. Loved the code for the BVLC. On the simulator where I was stationed, it was SACSUX.
Your motion tracking has gotten so good! You've really found your own personality and style too. love watching all your videos
I was actually having a crisis last night because I wasn’t sure if he was actually at a silo or it was all green screen. I’m still not sure if it is or not.
@@DrowsySquid75 a crisis ? he is clearly at the silo, if he wasn’t it would be the best CGI ever seen…
@@eoghanleythey meant a mental crisis
I love the Titan Missile Museum, I'm very happy to see you were able to visit! It's an excellent museum and very much worth the trip.
I would love to visit it too. For the time being, I saved the location on Google Maps :-). Very close to Tucson, I see
Hey guys, it's Lockpickinglawyer, in the missile silo
Why has this man not aged in 7 years?
It's the Tom Scott Paradox of science youtubers, just don't question it.
It’s obvious, he’s probably a vampire or he’s been cryogenically frozen like fry.
He's got a painting in his attic :-)
Nuclear weapons, biblically accurate angel antennae, and the Dingley swagger? You know you’re in for a good time! I hope you’ve read Command & Control, it adds so much more context to these facilities.
thank you! i got a nuke off ebay and was wondering how i was ment to launch this thing
Why be a mere spectator in Gotterdammerung when you can *participate!*
@benkloos2827, maybe exchange it with one of the 400 Minuteman III nukes!
Most nuclear warheads were designed to be dropped from planes, but if you have a missile, the security code is most likely "0000"
The timing whilst walking down the corridor was amazing!
Great to see you back! Nice that you got sole access to shoot this video - I think I have seen a few other demonstrations with groups of tourists.
Hands down, one of the best channels on TH-cam! Glad to see you back.
about 7 years ago, Veritasium made a video on the same topic. I just rewatched it, and your storytelling is SO much more compelling. another great vid!
Good video. The Titan II silo had side vents for the exhaust plume; two separate tunnels to the surface that exhausted either side of the silo door. They're visible at 9.53 in the vid.
The editing is insane
I couldn't even tell some of the cards were added in post they blend in so well
4:25 "The Titan II missile in her natural habitat" made me think "are we gonna see how the Titan II missiles mate?"
When a Titan I and a Titan II love each other very much, they share a special hug, then 9 months later; out pops a Minuteman III.
That would be the Agena dockings of the Gemini program. What you will observe is that the Titan II pretty much only mates with Atlas Agena.
Thanks dude this was extremely helpful
I recently got the job of a Commander in the silos and your video was better than my entire training
At 6:01: "Fill the remaining tank with 90,000 tons of liquid oxygen." I don't think the Titan I's thrust was quite up to the task of lifting that much :-)
I can see how someone not using the metric system can make this mistake... the fact that "a ton" has double meaning in english probably doesn't help either
So how much LOX ?
@@Mic_Glow In the areas where I've lived for the past 55 years, a "ton" has always meant "2,000 pounds", unless it had a "long" or "metric" specifier (and it wasn't used to generically mean "a lot", as in "that cost me a ton of money").
I imagine how buzzing you were to have access to such a cool location!
Yes! Was so happy when they said I could come!
I liked your large Coke bottle with Mentors to demonstrate the hypergolic reaction between hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide.
Well produced video, compliments!
Greetings,
Anthony
My grandfather worked in one of these titan II silos in Arizona, and it is so cool to be able to see the type of space he worked in.
Thanks a lot. I had forgotten how to launch mine.
Hey man, thanks for the tutorial! I've found it really helpful.
Edit: Could you please also make a tutorial on how to land a nuke? Thanks.
...if a nuke actually lands something has gone wrong
You are joking but I would actually be interested in how the nuke finds its target
@@dXXPacmanXXb doesn't 'find', it's aimed. As he relates: preprogrammed engine controls.
@@thekaxmax I dont think its all pre-programmed. It wouldnt be that accurate if it was just all pre-programmed behavior. They are only programming in the target and the launch sequence is probably also preprogrammed. But once its going back down towards its target it cant just hope the wind is going in the right direction
@@thekaxmax it would be also hella unreliable if there was no on-the-fly correction going on
I always like your commitment to remembering the script in one take lol
About a week ago the Corridor Crew had a video about the true size of a nuclear explosion, putting a lot of it into perspective. And now... Now we have been taught how the nukes would have been launched.
Remember people, nukes are not cool. Nukes destroy a LOT.
Amazing video as always, James. ♥
when the world needed him, he returned; with info on nuclear weapons no less!
I visited the place 3 years ago. A MUST go when you are in the Phoenix area. Beautiful but deadly.... and an MUST see for Star Trek "First contact" fans. Very nice video. Thanks
I live in Arizona and I have gone down into that facility twice. It is quite fascinating.
It's great to see you back to making videos!
I actually got to visit this museum a few days after your video and your video was a big reason why, so thanks!
i really needed this
this is the bomb
4:30
i like how they left the gaping cut out to remove the plutonium sphere of the warhead, certainmy with a circular saw, and left a gaping hole in the missile like that.
I'm new to the channel and I gotta say your content really hits the Rollercoaster, your channel is underrated and it hurts me to see other people with unbelievably unnecessary waste of time contents get more than 1 or 2 mil subs and when it comes to science or to something educational you only get the crumbs. What a generation we live in eh?
Keep doing what you're doing, it will prosper sooner than you think. Kudos 👍
Sitting in one of these must be one of the weirder Jobs you can do.
You know... waiting for doomsday knowing you might even catch a Nuke before/after you fire yourself one.
Just a though also is that there might be an US Silo pointing at a Russian one wich has the same target in vise versa.
It wasn't really that bad. Politics aside, we had a very macabre sort of trust with the opposition. We trusted each other not to go off half-cocked. We knew that they knew that we were ready to pull the trigger, and they knew the vice versa. Unless something really crazy happened, we felt pretty sure it was going to be a slow day.
@@sparc77 You actually worked in one of these? Thanks for the comment then i feel honored!
May i grab the opportunity and ask what like the average workday looked like? As a Kid i always thought they had to provide some sort of entertainment so you dont get bored to sleep beeing there. Is there actually something to do apart from beeing ready for the worst case all the time?
@@NewRSM1994 It did get boring at times.
I was in the 533rd SMS at McConnell AFB in Kansas. I was in my early 20s at that time.
A typical day (it was called an "alert") started with predeparture briefing at 0700. For the most part that consisted of them telling us if there were any issues going on that we needed to know about.
Then we would load up in our crew vehicle and drive out to the site (unless it had snowed and then we would take a Huey out to the site).
Once there, our commander would authenticate our identity and then we would go downstairs to the control center and do a crew changeover where we verify that all the classified documents are accounted for and we are up to date on the status of the missile.
After the other crew departs, we would do some daily operations which included a top to bottom inspection of the site. That usually took a couple of hours.
If there was any maintenance going on, we had to keep track of what they were doing.
The rest of the regular day we would do training packages, receive many communications, and support any other maintenance requirements.
After the maintenance teams had left for the day, we would settle down (often switch to more comfortable clothing) and spend the rest of the afternoon, evening and night studying for college classes (if you were taking one) watch TV (believe it or not, the most popular TV show among the crews was "The Muppet Show"), read, play music etc. After 6pm, we went to split shifts. Two people would go to bed and two people would stay awake. Then at midnight, we would do a midnight walk through and then the two who had stayed awake would go to bed and the two who had slept early would remain on duty the rest of the night.
During all that time, we constantly got messages from the HQ which had to be checked to see if they were launch messages or not.
Finally, somewhere between 8am and 9am the relief crew would arrive and we would do the reverse of when we arrived. Once the relief crew took possession of the site, we would go topside and take the same vehicle they had arrived in back to the base and then stand down. Overall, an alert would last about 30 hours.
The day we returned was a recoup day and were had the rest of that day off. Then next two days would usually involve some form of training (unless it was a weekend). Then the whole thing started over again. All in all we went on an alert every 3 days.
For the most part, it was a good job to have. We didn't have to worry about being deployed overseas or anything like that. But it also had some down sides. In those days, college age kids had a lot of animosity toward missile crewmen. But overall, we had each others' backs so we never lacked for friends.
The “await further orders” gives me the chills.
the fact we, as a species, built not only one, but multiple of these silos all around the globe just destroys my heart. Not only because of it shows how brutal and ruthless we can be, but also how, if we tried, we could set our minds to such great things, instead of worrying if we will kill each other
It was regrettable, but consider this...MAD worked.
This is crazy I was literally just there at that same silo on a tour! Amazing place, I'd totally recommend it.
Why is this the first time i find this channel?! The video was simply BRILLIANT.
I was finally able to visit this facility in October 2023. The tech at the time is beyond impressive. The tour guide I had was absolutely amazing as well. Your ending is something i started to ponder after i visited as well, but more in regard to the air force bombers who will drop bombs to possibly not even have a place to land when their mission is completed..
Thanks! I followed your guide and it worked!
One of the most worrying aspects for me is that you can't test the final design until you actually launch it. The amount of effort to make sure it hits the target first time must be insane.
You can do just as much testing as a normal rocket. Just make it hit a place in the US without a payload.
@@mbg8733 they launch missiles all the time in nevada or something, theres like thousands of holes in the desert
In theory you can test the launch site however many times you like with a missile without payload. There should be plenty of chances to test things out.
@@mbg8733 Even in case of payload you probably could test without need of an actual nuke. Basically the implosion system stays intact but fissile material is removed, in addition you put special "computers" in to make sure that the implosion works well that transmit data to other computer that transmits it out to be received (all in almost an instant before they all are destroyed). Name of it is "High Explosive Radio Telemetry" if anyone is curious.
@@lizzycoaxor if you're testing with an actual nuclear warhead, you ideally aim at something in the South Pacific, not at your own country.
Hey James, can you do a video on the underground spherical antenna? I never heard of these before
I'm not an expert on the SLFCs, but I do know it was very similar to the system used to talk to the submarines at that time.
This was top notch, thanks mate.
Wow glad to see this channel back and on such a useful topic too
Yay, you're back! Thanks for another great video. :)
I wonder how much more advanced today's nuclear missile silos are if they can show this stuff publically like that
Nuke submarines deffenatly and maybe they have hypersonic drone deployment system
Thanks for the tutorial
I was there in 1991 not long after the museum was begun. They really did a great job restoring it, as it was totally non operational at that time. All you could really do was turn the key. Guess I'll have to go back.
I think that was one of the best videos about nukes Ive ever watched!
One of the well-choreographed videos I've seen!!
Wonderful vid, it's insane how terrifying ICBM test launches are.
Thanks, finally I found a tutorial. I ordered this thing off of Silk Road a while ago an no clue how to operate it.
Very well done.
Also, good walk and talk timing for when the pipes came up.
Thanks for the tutorial.
Thank you for the advice!
I will try to apply this to my projects!
thanks for advice now i can proceed
Great video, and absolutely recommend visiting the museum.
videos like these makes youtube underrated
This information is definitely going to come in handy
Thanks for this simple tutorial. Simple to understand.
Thanks! I'll know for next time.
"Backup coffee reserves."
The important stuff.
Another great video! Thanks for sharing this with us!
thanks for tutorial
great to see you back
Thanks man, I was really looking for a tutorial on this particular topic.
good to see you back!
thanks for the tutorial video! i was looking for something like this for my home nuclear missile
This will be very helpful for my next project
Thanks, will try it!
Incredible quality, subscribed!
Thanks. I needed a tutorial, just what I was looking for.
Titan silos are so cool, the MMIII ones are very cramped
Very useful tutorial! Im gonna use it later.
Great to see you back!
I see what you meant when you said a mega video coming! Worth the wait!
Awesome you're back!
Thanks bro I couldn’t figure it out myself this video was really helpful
WOW, so amazing to see this by TH-cam.
Im so glad the military uses a NUCULAR message delivery system with McDonalds Drive Thru speakers....because those are always so crystal clear!
Thank you for this incredible video. If it weren't for the good people like you, we would never see such things
Thanks big dawg will be sure to use
I’m incredibly impressed with your production quality and presentation style
VERY WELL DOCUMENTED .... gaind my subscription.....keep up the good work
This is a fantastic video!
Systems like this are such a masterpiece of engineering.
I really think if humanity fully understood this whole cold war thing, we'd be a lot nicer to each other now.
Videos like this show how far it went...
Imagine all those resources that went into one launch facility, if that work could have gone into other kinds of human infrastructure. Life would be incredible.
Thank you, I can now use my knowledge to practice!
Helped. Thanks
I'll keep that in mind
Thanks for the help!
Thx for making this, finally managed to launch it after a few hours of trying because of this vid
Well done, James!
amazing. how did you get access to this ? this site is decommissioned but still I can't imagine someone could visiting and filming. Congrats, great video !
It's the titan missile museum south of Tucson az
@@b.buster thank you, I didn't know (I am from Italy)
@@AndreaZzzXXX There are also multiple Minuteman missile museums across the midwest too, with the full bunker, command center, etc setup, very similar to those still used today, like the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site by Cooperstown, North Dakota.
oh hey this channel still exists
Yup, been more than half a year since the last one! In that time I finished my Master's thesis, got really sick (serves me right), toured the continent (I've now got enough videos for month episodes until ~April), and started a Phd in space robotics. It's good to be back publishing videos again
@@AtomicFrontier That's worth the wait!
@@AtomicFrontier woah congrats on the masters! glad to hear youll be posting again!!