Fairchild Air Force Base - Weaponry

Weaponry

At one time, Washington state had the distinction of having more nuclear warheads than four of the six known nuclear-armed nations. These warheads were concentrated in two places: at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane and at the Kitsap Submarine Base across Puget Sound, on the Hood Canal. At Fairchild, 85 nuclear gravity bombs (25 B61-7 gravity bombs and 60 B83 gravity bombs) were stored in a reserve nuclear depot. Bangor's eight submarines have 24 Trident I missiles per boat with eight warheads per missile, for a total of 1,536. These bombs were removed from the base by the end of the 1990s. In one instance of nuclear warhead transportation in the mid 1990s, while loading it into an airplane, one of the warheads slipped off the loader and landed onto the runway. Luckily, the warhead was not armed, so it did not detonate. North Dakota had a similar nuclear strength during the Cold War, with both SAC bases at Minot and Grand Forks equipped with B-52 bombers and Minuteman missiles. Grand Forks relinquished its nuclear role, but Minot continues.