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The Air Force asks Congress to protect its nuclear launch sites from encroaching wind turbines
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In this image provided by the U.S. Air Force, wind turbines spin near the Malmstrom Air Force Base missile launch site Alpha-03 in Geyser, Mont., in August 2023. As the nation's energy needs have increased, turbines have grown in size and number, and are being placed closer to the underground silos where Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles are kept ready to fire. The Air Force is concerned that the turbines are making it dangerous for their helicopter crews to fly out to the sites, often flying low and fast, when responding to an alarm at one of the silos. The service is seeking a two nautical mile buffer zone around the sites. - photo by John Turner/U.S. Air Force via AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force's vast fields of underground nuclear missile silos are rarely disturbed by more than the occasional wandering cow or floating spy balloon. But the service is now asking Congress to help with another unexpected danger: towering wind turbines, which are growing in number and size and are edging closer to the sites each year. The silos share space on vast private farmlands with the turbines.