US Army site to store Trident rocket motors

Tooele Army Depot (TEAD) in Utah has begun to receive and store first- and second-stage solid-propellant rocket motors taken from decommissioned UGM-96 Trident C-4 (Trident I) submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) proposed to TEAD in August 2011 that the motors be stored at the Utah facility, which has ample storage capacity and decades of experience in moving and storing munitions. In the 1980s it stored Minuteman motors for the MDA.

Should a motor require repair, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) located nearby in Bacchus, Utah, would be able to carry out the work.

The Trident motors will be stored in magazines at what was until recently the Deseret Chemical Depot. Now that the latter site's programme for the demilitarisation of stockpiled chemical weapons is complete, the facility is being managed by TEAD, and will be designated Tooele South.

The MDA had awarded TEAD USD1.15 million in funding to modify 10 existing earth-covered magazines for the new role of storing large rocket motors. These need to be stored at temperatures of 60 to 90 degrees F (approximately 15.5 to 32.0 degrees C), and at between 20 to 30 per cent relative humidity.