p.53-94 (pdf) - Natural Resources Defense Council

Appendix C U.S. Nuclear Weapons, Location Profiles, CONTINUED
NEW MEXICO
Rank: No. 1
Nuclear Warheads: 2450
Kirtland
AIR FORCE BASE
BECAUSE OF A BACKLOG OF WARHEADS awaiting dismantlement
at the DOE’s Pantex facility near Amarillo, TX, the Kirtland
Underground Munitions Storage Complex (KUMSC) at Kirtland
AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico has emerged as number one in
U.S. nuclear warheads deployed in a single location, a rise from
2nd place in 1992 and 11th place in 1985.
Kirtland AFB serves as one of two main Air Force nuclear
weapons general depots in the United States (the other is at Nellis
AFB in Nevada). And because of its 300 mile proximity to Pantex,
Kirtland serves as a transshipment base and storage point augmenting
the disassembly facility. Nuclear weapons are stored in
the newly built, partially underground KUMSC facility, managed
by the 898th Munitions Squadron of the 377th Air Base Wing
(ABW), a unit of the Air Force Materiel Command. The 377th Air
Base Wing received excellent and outstanding ratings in its 1994
NSI. They had another NSI on June 21-30, 1997. The 898th MUNS
is scheduled to receive an NSI on September 28, 1998.
Kirtland AFB traces its origins to the 1920s when a private
airstrip called Oxnard Field was created. In the late 1930’s Albuquerque’s municipal airport began
operating in what is now the base’s west side, and in 1939, military activity began with the leasing of
2000 acres. One of the country’s largest bomber crew training bases was created soon thereafter,
and a training depot for aircraft mechanics (later known as Sandia Base) was established during the
Second World War.
In July 1945, Los Alamos scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer formed Z-Division to manage
the engineering, design, production, assembly, and field testing of the non-nuclear components of
atomic bombs. The need for flight support and test facilities reasonably near to the Los Alamos
Laboratory led to the movement of the Division to Sandia in September 1945. By July 1946 transfer
was almost complete and Z-Division moved into four new buildings, 828, 838, 824 and 839. The unit
became the Sandia Corporation in 1949 and later the Sandia National Laboratories, still the largest
element and tenant at Kirtland.
During the Cold War, Kirtland became the U.S. military center for nuclear weapons administration
and operation. The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) (later the Defense Atomic
Support Agency-DASA, then the Defense Nuclear Agency-DNA, now the Defense Special Weapons
Agency-DSWA) operated the Sandia Base from its creation in 1947. In 1949, the Air Force Special
Weapons Command (disestablished in 1976) was also established at Kirtland, and in 1949, the Naval
Weapons Evaluation Facility, a Navy nuclear weapons research and test facility was established. It
was joined by the Air Force Weapons Laboratory (which became the Phillips Laboratory in 1990). In
1971, Kirtland and Sandia Base merged.
In 1945, nuclear weapons first came to the Sandia Base, and a special Manhattan District Military
Police unit was established to guard the bombs as they were brought down from the Los Alamos
laboratory for practice and operational loading on specially modified B-29 bombers. Nuclear warheads
came for permanent storage in 1949, when the Manzano Base Weapons Storage Area (“Site
Worldwide Nuclear Deployments 1998 63