The Strategic Missile Forces Museum in Ukraine is a military museum located near the town of Pobuzke, in Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine, about 250 kilometres south of Kyiv. It was built around the remains of a former underground Unified Command Post for RT-23/SS-24 Molodets ICBM rockets.
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Coolest experience of my trip here in Europe so far... Aaand quite possibly of my life!!! I got to spend the day in what was an active intercontinental nuclear ballistic missile silo 🤯🚀☢️☎️☠️
I held the A.C.T.U.A.L. key that could have ended the world 🗝️💥💀 If that isn't cool... I don't know what is🤣😂🙈
This was not your average tour... This wasn't even supposed to happen.... But it did!!!
After a long day on the bike I show up close to dark at what I think is just a Soviet military museum in the middle of no where... Negative...... 30 years ago this was the most strategic and secure point in the entire USSR!!!!!
With the input of a secret ever-changing code, a flick of 2 separate switches, and the simultaneous turn of 2 keys less than 10 feet (3m) apart a nuclear warhead could reach the United States in less than 22 minutes ⌛
This former Soviet base contains 3 missile silos that were just over 140 feet (43m) under ground. Each individual silo was covered by a hatch that weighed 14 tons! This hatch could open fully in just 8 seconds!!! In 1959 the construction of this base started in the early fall.... In the summer of 1960 it was fully operational! In less than one year the Soviets built and engineered this entire base 😯
At the time this base was completed it had state of the art computers which were also underground in a room that was big enough to be used as a warehouse... 85 percent of the cooling capacity of the liquid helium refrigerators was used solely to cool this behemoth of a computer!!! The smart phone you have in your hand right now has 20 times more computing power than this Soviet cutting edge 60's tech 🤯🤯🤯
The missile... Let's talk about that little guy.... It had a range of 15,500 miles (25,000km) which was more than enough to reach out and touch the States just about anywhere the Red Army wanted to. It's minimum range was 1,200 miles (2,000km) & this was important incase they fancied an attack on the UK, France ooooor Western Germany 🤷 It carried a warhead 37 times stronger than that was dropped on Hiroshima! The missile herself weighed so much the Soviets had to manufacture a truck capable of carrying so much weight with multiple electric motors in each wheel... There were 24 wheels..... All with their own motor to help the diesel powered truck up the hills and down the highway.
They also had a secret train which was used to carry missiles thought the USSR... Very under the radar because there's trans were made to look old and busted... The only way you would know these were not normal passenger cars as they passed you on the tracks were the fact they had 4 wheels instead of 2 at each end of the train cars... Because the weight of the missiles works have crushed a single axle train 💪🤯🙈
The Soviets had to move, install, and seal up the missile in her silo in less than 2 hours or the Americans with our satellites would know what these commies were up to. Which could have very easily caused the cold eat to go hot... Damn hot!
Awesome group of guys who run this tour and have a really big passion for their service. Not much English is spoken but what is translated...
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I visited museums from both sides of the Cold War – this one, and Titan Missile Museum in Arizona. (see my profile for the review of that one)
The location is not the greatest for obvious reasons. But it totally worth it, be ready to spend here at least four hours.
I’d say this museum is way crazier than the one in Arizona. First of of all, they have a lot of various military vehicles, including Satan missile, and nuclear missile train. Secondly, the Soviet government was insane about their nuclear missiles — silo has three mechanisms to guarantee that retaliation strike happens even if everyone who makes the decision about this dies.
Unfortunately you won’t be able to see the silo, because it was buried. But they left a couple of meters of it for demonstration proposes.
People who used to serve here at the time of the Cold War are making excursions nowadays, and they allow you to press the button and “begin a Third World War”. Unfortunately missile control center only allows three people to be inside, so if your group is big, you may end up spending an hour or so while waiting for your turn to “launch the missile”.
Other unfortunate thing, that people who work here seem to be unhappy about the fact, that this facility with insane weapons of mass destruction...
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Not many people can say they have been inside a nuclear missile silo and pressed the infamous launch button that could cause so much havoc!
This is a long drive out from Kiev however, very much worth it. A disused soviet era nuclear missile silo converted into a museum and open to the public. The guided tour is fantastic and offers a huge insight into how the base was run and also the lengths and training the soldiers had to go through to ensure they were mentally fit to live inside the silo and conditioned to press the launch button without hesitation! The tour is very relaxed and the guide we had spoke english and was happy to answer any questions that we asked her. She also took the tour at the pace we wanted, not trying to rush you from one point to the next.
There is plenty to see and learn and you don't leave feeling was that it. I would highly recommend visiting this place for an opportunity that most don't get. There are plenty of decommissioned vehicles and weapons to look at and explore.
There is a small gift shop at the end with a few souvenirs that are reasonably priced.
Overall this is a must go see...
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