ABSTRACT
The decision in June 1973 to proceed with full-scale research, development, testing, and engineering of a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capped years of wrangling among individuals in the Department of Defense and defense contractors over the characteristics of a new generation of ICBMs to follow the Minuteman. The origins of MX may be traced to the air force’s desire to develop and to deploy a follow-on missile to the Minuteman program of the 1960s and early 1970s. The official beginnings of the MX program came with the establishment of a US Air Force MX Office at Norton Air Force Base in San Bemadino, California, in June 1973. Between 1973 and 1976, the air force and the Department of Defense began research, development, and testing of the MX missile and evaluating various basing schemes for its future home.
