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You’ve probably driven past one and never knew it. Most people think nuclear weapons are tucked away in some Hollywood-style underground lair beneath a dormant volcano, but the truth is a lot more suburban—and a lot more spread out. If you’re asking where are the nukes in the us, you aren't just looking for a single GPS coordinate. You’re looking at a massive, aging, and incredibly complex web of silos, bomber bases, and naval piers that stretch from the foggy coast of Washington state to the flat, windy plains of North Dakota.
It’s not a secret. Not really.
While the exact security protocols are classified, the locations of America’s nuclear triad—land, sea, and air—are basically public record if you know which gates to look at. We are talking about roughly 3,700 warheads in the total stockpile, though only about 1,400 to 1,500 are "deployed," meaning they are ready to go at a moment's notice. The rest are sitting in storage, waiting for their turn in the maintenance cycle or headed for the retirement home of high-yield explosives.
The Silent Sentinels of the Great Plains
The bulk of the land-based nukes live in places most people only fly over. Think Montana. North Dakota. Wyoming. These are the home of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana is a big one. It manages about 150 silos scattered across a staggering 13,000 square miles. To put that in perspective, that’s an area larger than the state of Maryland. You could be driving down a dirt road, see a chain-link fence with some barbed wire and a few sensors, and you're looking at a nuclear missile capable of reaching the other side of the planet in thirty minutes. There isn't a massive sign that says "Nukes Here." It’s just a concrete slab in the middle of a wheat field.
Then you’ve got Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. It’s the only base in the country that houses both ICBMs in silos and B-52 bombers capable of carrying nuclear gravity bombs and cruise missiles. It is, quite literally, one of the most heavily armed places on the planet. The locals have a saying: "Why Not Minot? Freezin' is the reason." But for the Department of Defense, the reason is the vast, open space that makes targeting these silos difficult for an adversary without a massive, coordinated strike.
F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming rounds out the trio. This base oversees silos that bleed over into Nebraska and Colorado. It’s a strange juxtaposition. You have 19th-century brick buildings on the main base and cutting-edge thermonuclear tech buried in the dirt a few miles away. It’s old-school meets end-of-the-world.
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The "Booh" Boats: Nukes at Sea
If the silos are the most visible part of the map, the submarines are the ghosts. This is the "sea" leg of the triad. The Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) are arguably the most important part of the US nuclear deterrent because they are nearly impossible to track.
When people ask where are the nukes in the us, they often forget the coastlines.
- Naval Base Kitsap (Washington): Located on the Kitsap Peninsula across from Seattle, this is the home port for the Pacific fleet of Trident II D5 missiles.
- Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay (Georgia): This is the Atlantic counterpart.
At any given time, several of these submarines are out at sea, lurking in deep water. We don't know exactly where they are—that’s the whole point. But when they come home to port, the warheads are there. There’s a specific facility at Kitsap called the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific (SWFPAC). It’s one of the highest concentrations of nuclear weapons in the Western Hemisphere. Satellite imagery shows the bunkers. It’s not hidden; it’s just guarded by guys with very big guns and a lot of high-tech surveillance.
Gravity Bombs and Stealth: The Air Force Bases
The air leg is a bit more flexible. Unlike a missile in a silo, you can call a bomber back. The primary hubs for nuclear-capable aircraft are Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
Whiteman is the exclusive home of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. These bats-wing planes are kept in climate-controlled hangars because their "skin" is incredibly sensitive. They carry the B61 and B83 gravity bombs. Barksdale, on the other hand, is the land of the B-52. These planes are older than the pilots flying them, but they’ve been retrofitted to carry nuclear-armed cruise missiles (ALCMs).
Honestly, the logistics are mind-boggling. You don't just leave a nuclear bomb sitting on a rack in a regular hangar. They are kept in "Weapons Storage Areas" (WSAs) that are essentially fortresses within fortresses.
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The "Broken Arrows" and Storage Sites
We have to talk about the storage. Not every nuke is "on the line." A massive chunk of the US arsenal is kept in reserve or waiting to be dismantled at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.
Pantex is the only facility in the United States that still assembles and disassembles nuclear weapons. If a warhead needs a new plutonium pit or a hardware upgrade, it goes to Texas. It’s a 16,000-acre site where the "physics packages" are handled with terrifying precision. If you’re counting "where the nukes are," Amarillo is a top-three answer, even though those weapons aren't currently pointed at a target.
Then there’s the Kirtland Underground Munitions Maintenance and Storage Complex (KUMMSC) in New Mexico. It’s tucked away at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. This is widely considered the largest storage facility for retired or reserve nuclear weapons in the world. It’s a massive underground bunker system. Most people driving down I-40 have no clue they are passing within a few miles of thousands of warheads.
Mapping the Risk: Why Location Matters
The geography of nuclear weapons isn't accidental. It’s a strategy called "damage limitation."
By putting the silos in the middle of nowhere (the "missile fields"), the idea is that an enemy would have to waste their own missiles hitting empty dirt in North Dakota rather than hitting major population centers like New York or Los Angeles. It turns the Great Plains into a "sponge"—absorbing a nuclear attack to save the rest of the country. It’s a grim reality that people in those states live with every day.
Does it affect property values?
Kinda. Usually, people just forget they're there. But if you look at a map of "Priority One" targets for a foreign adversary, the sites mentioned above are at the top of the list. Living near Minot or Malmstrom means living at Ground Zero.
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The Nuance of "Secret" Locations
There are rumors about nukes being stored at other bases, like Nellis in Nevada or various sites in Europe under "nuclear sharing" agreements.
The US does keep about 100 B61 bombs in Europe—specifically in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, and the Netherlands. So, when asking where are the nukes in the us, the answer technically extends to US-controlled vaults overseas. Within the states, however, the Department of Defense is pretty transparent about which bases have nuclear missions, even if they won't confirm the exact number of warheads in a specific bunker on a specific day.
The safety record is... mostly good? We’ve had "Broken Arrows"—accidents involving nuclear weapons. There was the 1961 Goldsboro crash in North Carolina where a B-52 broke up in mid-air and dropped two bombs. One of them almost detonated; five of the six safety triggers failed. Only one switch prevented a multi-megaton explosion in the American South. Then there was the 1980 Damascus, Arkansas incident, where a technician dropped a socket and punctured a Titan II missile, leading to an explosion that tossed a warhead into a nearby field.
These things happen. The systems are better now, but the geography of these weapons means that rural America bears the brunt of the risk.
Actionable Steps for the Curious
If you’re interested in the footprint of nuclear weapons in your area, you don't need a security clearance to be informed.
- Check the Nuclear Notebook: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists publishes the "Nuclear Notebook" every year. It’s the gold standard for unclassified data on exactly how many warheads are at which bases. Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda are the experts you want to read.
- Use Public Mapping Tools: Organizations like Nukemap (created by Alex Wellerstein) allow you to see the blast radius of weapons currently stationed at these bases. It’s a sobering way to understand the scale.
- Visit the Museums: If you want to see a silo without being tackled by security, go to the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, Arizona. It’s a decommissioned site where you can walk into the control room and see the (now empty) silo. It’s the best way to understand the sheer physical scale of these things.
- Stay Informed on Modernization: The US is currently moving toward the "Sentinel" missile to replace the aging Minuteman III. This involves massive construction projects in the same states—Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. If you live in these areas, keep an eye on local environmental impact statements; that’s where the real "secret" info is often hidden in plain sight.
The American nuclear map is a relic of the Cold War that is currently getting a multi-billion dollar facelift. It’s not just history—it’s the current landscape. Whether you’re in a sleepy town in Missouri or a coastal village in Washington, the infrastructure of the end of the world is probably closer than you think.