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I dont think "nuclear sponge" is a real concept that dates to the Cold War. Can you provide a reference? In a quick search, I just found poorly written and rece

I dont think "nuclear sponge" is a real concept that dates to the Cold War. Can you provide a reference? In a quick search, I just found poorly written and recent articles that just link to each other. Rather, the silo fields were dispersed to get out of range of sub launched missiles or soviet ICBMs that would go over the N pole, which is why some of them are very close to the Mexican border in NM (like the Titan IIs around Roswell). Of course, potential modern Russian ICBMs that have the range to go over the South Pole negate this defense and also any midrange ABM interception possibilities. I also suspect that silo locations were an early example of Congressional pork. Or, just located next to exiting SAC bases for logistical reasons, like Beale AFB in northern California.

redmajor12 2y ago
Never mind. This is from 1978 with respect to the MX program (although this is quite late in ICBM deployment history and I think more of a specific problem for the MX- the "Peacekeeper" was supposed to be so accurate that it was reasoned that the Soviets would see it as a first strike weapon against their missile fields, making any potential US deployment necessitate an immediate soviet response. Hence crazy basing ideas like a network of underground trains carrying the missiles.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/07/24/fresh-challenge-voiced-to-missile-shell-game/7b2f8ae3-0109-43e3-a6bd-2bc04c56f6c8/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/07/24/f...