You have to stoop to pass thru the short tunnel that gives you access to the LCC; this is the "nerve center" of the Missile Squadron, and hence "Ground Zero" for an enemy attack aimed at knocking out our missile defenses. Once you are through the tunnel, the Missile Combat Crew Commander greets you at the entrance, and gives you and your Team Member a safety and security briefing regarding the current situation inside the "capsule". He then briefs you on the reason for your stop: the Medium Frequency (MF) Radio system is malfunctioning, causing "Radio Out Reply (ROR)" errors for all 10 Launch Facilities. While the LCC still has control and status monitoring of the silos via cable, the MF Radio equipment being inop is considered a system degrade. You head into the LCC proper to survey the equipment concerned...

You and your Team Member head forward into the capsule to check out the MF Radio equipment.

NOTE: Click on highlighted images for a larger view!

When you first walk into the "capsule", you get a view of several digital data equipment racks, and the Status Console that is operated by the Deputy Missile Combat Crew Commander (DMCCC). This console contains a status board with lamps giving quick visual "Go - No Go" status for the critical systems of 10 primary and 10 secondary Launch Facilities. The console also holds a Signal Data Recorder, which provides coded fault number printouts of all missile systems status in the squadron. Next to the console, to the right, is a Monitor and Alarm rack, with status lights that indicate trouble in circuits that keep the LCC operational.

Looking back toward the LCC tunnel and blast door as you pass the DMCCC Console, you can see a little bit better view of the status boards, and the SDR mounted in a panel to the right of the status lights. You can also see the telephone set for the switchboard - probably the most used piece of equipment in the LCC at times, as the capsule crew constantly sends and receives messages to headquarters, security controllers, maintenance crews, aircraft, job controllers, and home via radio, intercom and telephone - all through this switchboard. To the immediate left of the console is the HF Radio Transceiver system - originally used in submarines, which may explain the "boat anchor" size of the equipment. Next to that is the SACDIN Digital Communications rack. Both of these systems have been mothballed and "abandoned in place" as new satellite communications systems came on line.

In this picture we can see the configuration of a Squdron Command Post LCC; instead of the HF Radio Rack being to the left of the DMCC Console, there is an AFSATCOM rack with a message typewriter installed. From this angle we can also get a good look at the rail-mounted seat that the crew sits in. This seat is the same as used in B-52 Bombers, complete with a 4-point harness. During times of imminent attack (or exercises), the crew straps themselves into the seat so that bomb-blasts will not toss them about the capsule, thus incapacitating them. The rails allow the chair to slide back and forth between the console and equipment racks, so that crew members can perform tasks while remaining "strapped in". The red box above the console is the safe used to hold launch keys and authentication codes for Emergency Action Messages, such as an Emergency War Order. The panel to the right of the key safe is a monitor and alarm system connected to LCEB sensors.

Here is a closeup of the Status Console, as it is usually called, with the Deputy Commander "strapped in" for an exercise. You can also see the Status Light panels and the Signal Data Recorder which prints out missile faults on a paper tape. Practice Emergency Action Messages are regularly transmitted, as well as routine coded radio traffic refering to Wing Alert Status - such messages are usually proceeded with the callsign "Skybird", which lets crew members know that messages are low priority traffic. If a maintenance crew is trying to work in the capsule when an EAM message is being transmitted, they are sent to the tunnel entrance area of the LCC, so as not to view the classified contents since such messages are "need to know" basis only. This can be quite a headache if a flurry of messages are being sent: technicians can often spend more time tromping back and forth to the tunnel entrance area than actually working!

This is the Missile Combat Crew Commander's (MCCC)Console, known as the Command Console for short. At the upper right of the console, you can see that a panel has been removed for maintenance and covered with plastic and red tape. This is standard procedure when removing any electrical panel or drawer from a rack or console; it keeps out foriegn objects such as dirt and dust, and helps to maintain the correct airflow balance for the console's cooling air, supplied by the Environmental Control System (ECS).

Looking at the Command Console from this angle, you can also see the SLFCS rack. This communications rack uses Super Low Frequency (far below the AM Broadcast band on the dial) to send digital communications, similar to the system submarines use when under water. SLF radio frequencies have the ability to travel through the Earth and ocean with much better efficiency than higher frequencies.

Rounding the corner of the LCC near the Command Console,you get a look at the "other half" of the LCC. This area is what separated the "cadillac" Wing 6 LCC's from the ones at other bases - none of the other style capsules have this "double wide" LCC, so all the equipment at those Launch Control Centers is stuffed into the single aisle where the deputy's console sits - including the bed! In the Grand Forks LCC, however, there is plenty of room for the bed (where the photo was taken from, so it is off camera), battery charger and communications racks, plus filing cabinets and a much better quality ECS system. This also gives the sleeping area much better privacy. Not to mention the fact that the other style LCC's have the bed tucked in a bad location - a small nook across from the bathroom.

As you pass the equipment racks near the bed, you spy the cause of the crew's radio problem - a circuit breaker providing power to part of the MF Radio system has popped. A light on the Monitor and Alarm Set next to the deputy's console should have alerted them to this; you check and find a burned out bulb. Within the time it takes to describe the cause of the problem, you have it fixed, brief the crew, and head back toward the elevator.

To see more technical details about the LCC's equipment and it's nuclear attack survival gear, click here.

Once above ground, you call Job Control and TCC to let them know work is done and that you will be enroute to the silo, once again. You and your team pile into the truck, exit the gate, and hit the cold pavement, again.