Construction on the last of the eighteen sites built for the 308 thStrategic Missile Wing began on February 15, 1961.
Highway 65 about a half mile north of its intersection with East Cadron Ridge Road near Springhill in Faulkner County. The Titan II ICBM Launch Complex 374-5 Site is located east of U.S. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 6, 2000. The site demolition took place on May 1, 1987. Launch Complex 373-5 was taken off alert on October 20, 1986, after twenty-three years of service. Launch Complex 373-5 also was the scene in January 1968 of one of only three military fatalities to befall the 308 th SMW in Arkansas an airman slipped on a hydraulic fluid spill and fell to his death down the launch duct. Construction of the complex began on January 3, 1961, and the site was placed on alert on June 15, 1963. The Titan II ICBM Launch Complex 373-5 Site is located about a half mile east of Highway 320 on Highway 36 near Center Hill in White County. The three-level launch control centers are intact, as are the blast lock areas. The access portals are partially filled with rubble, and the blast lock doors are tack-welded shut. The control center air intake shafts are filled with grout, but intact. Extensive underground components from the missile launch complexes also survive. The four National Register–listed Titan II missile launch complexes generally feature concrete pads and earthen mounds reflecting locations of important site features. The 308 th SMW and 373 rd SMS were formally deactivated on August 18, 1987. The final day of operation of the 308 th SMW was July 14, 1987, at Launch Complex 373-8 near Judsonia in White County. The 374 th SMS was formally deactivated on August 15, 1986, and its last launch complex, 374-9 near Quitman (Cleburne County), was demolished on November 19, 1986. After being left open for six months to allow Soviet satellite confirmation of their destruction, the ducts were filled with debris, capped, covered with dirt, and seeded with grass. Destruction of the launch complexes required demolition of the launch ducts in each complex to a depth of some twenty-five feet, followed by excavation of soil around the silo to that depth. On September 24, 1981, the administration of President Ronald Reagan announced plans to retire the Titan II program, citing concerns about safety, a need for cost efficiency, and an evolving nuclear strategy focusing on more modern and precise weapons systems. Four-member crews manned each of the 308 th’s eighteen launch complexes constantly once they were placed on alert. Construction on the first-Launch Complex 373-4 near Pangburn (White County)-began on January 3, 1961, and the complex became the first in the 308 th SMW to be placed on strategic alert, on May 16, 1963, ready to launch its missile at any time. Sites for eighteen Titan II ICBM launch complexes were selected in Faulkner, Conway, White, Van Buren, and Cleburne counties. The 308 th SMW was based at Little Rock Air Force Base and included the 373 rd and 374 th SMSs. Three Strategic Missile Wings (SMWs), each housing two Strategic Missile Squadrons (SMSs) of nine missiles each, were established at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville (Pulaski County), Davis-Montham Air Force Base in Arizona, and McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas. Deployment of the Titan II missiles was approved by the U.S. The Titan II program was part of the second generation of ICBMs, and missiles could be launched from within their silos in less than a minute first-generation missiles had to be raised from their silos, fueled, and then launched, which could take up to twenty minutes. The sites of four Titan II Launch Complexes-373-5 near Center Hill in White County, 374-5 near Springhill in Faulkner County, 374-7 near Southside in Van Buren County, and 373-9 near Vilonia (Faulkner County)-are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Eighteen were in Arkansas, from which ICBMs carrying nine-megaton nuclear warheads could be launched to strike targets as far as 5,500 miles away. Resulting from this was the Titan II Missile program, a Cold War weapons system featuring fifty-four launch complexes in three states. Following the Soviet Union’s detonation of its first thermonuclear bomb in 1953, the United States began actively developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
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