No.
The United States has thousands of nuclear missiles spread out across the country, but there haven’t been any in South Dakota since the early 1990s.
There were 15 launch control facilities for 150 Minuteman missile silos in western South Dakota in the region of Ellsworth Air Force Base starting in 1963.
Amid Cold War arms-reduction efforts and the START I treaty with Russia, the United States had those nuclear weapons removed and the launch control facilities destroyed rather than upgrade the Minuteman missiles. A launch control center and a silo remain at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site near Phillip.
The United States reported its nuclear stockpile was at 3,748 warheads as of September 2023.
Today, 400 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles remain deployed near air bases in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, with missile fields extending into parts of Colorado and Nebraska.
This fact brief responds to conversations such as this one.
Sources
National Park Service, Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991
National Park Service, Minuteman Missile
National Nuclear Security Administration, Transparency in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Stockpile
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, United States nuclear weapons, 2021
South Dakota News Watch partners with Gigafact to publish fact briefs that refute or confirm a claim with supporting information and additional evidence and context. Send questions or feedback to factbrief@sdnewswatch.org. Submit a question for us to answer on the South Dakota News Watch Tipline. partners with Gigafact to publish fact briefs that refute or confirm a claim with supporting information and additional evidence and context.
Support fact briefs. Help us fight misinformation by supporting fact briefs that refute or confirm a claim with supporting information and additional evidence and context.
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email to get stories when they're published. Contact Michael Klinski at michael.klinski@sdnewswatch.org.
