Declassified CIA Map Archives

[ORAC]

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1347x887/image_3d8d7e6b18d89a7db7922c9fe27b1f1c83c4092a.jpeg

[Islandlad]

Top Secret - for who? The owners knew they were there. Did the US think the USSR didn't know we knew? Or were these 'scare' maps to get more funding?

[ORAC]

Top Secret not because the map showed which ones they knew - but revealed which ones they didn’t know....

[BDAttitude]

So why are are most below 60° north?

[Bergerie1]

Because WW3 would have taken place across the North Pole?

[sandiego89]

So why are are most below 60° north?

That caught my eye as well. No idea, but guesses are to give additional reaction time for US missiles coming over the top. Secondary guess for logistics. Very little infrastructure above that latitude. Rail access better along the route.

[MPN11]

Top Secret not because the map showed which ones they knew - but revealed which ones they didn’t know....
And also potentially reveals sources/capabilies.

[BDAttitude]

That caught my eye as well. No idea, but guesses are to give additional reaction time for US missiles coming over the top. Secondary guess for logistics. Very little infrastructure above that latitude. Rail access better along the route.
You're of course right: Many of them are located along the Transsib. However there would have been some rather long north bound dead end tracks from there.
Was there ever a minimum pre-warning time guaranteed from one of the treaties?
Also they seem to be located on a circle slightly offset from the pole on 180°W/E. There would have been a branch of the Transsib North of Lake Baikal as well, but they placed them south which fits that circle better.

[jmmoric]

That caught my eye as well. No idea, but guesses are to give additional reaction time for US missiles coming over the top. Secondary guess for logistics. Very little infrastructure above that latitude. Rail access better along the route.

Because launching a rocket east-west is way more efficient than going over the north pole....

And at some point I think nuclear weapons with the ability to be launched across the poles were banned by agreement?? Or was it just the south pole???? <-- Probably the last, since it would circumvent the different alerting lines covering the north...

[Buster Hyman]

WTF!!! "NO FOREIGN DISSEM EXCEPT UK AND CANADA"!!!! Cancel ANZUS!!!

[MAINJAFAD]

WTF!!! "NO FOREIGN DISSEM EXCEPT UK AND CANADA"!!!! Cancel ANZUS!!!

Need to Know. Canadians working at NORAD, British Running BMEWS at Fylingdales..

[tartare]

Crikey, look at that one up in Ugol whateveritsnameis - top right!
It says stockpile.
What was the thinking putting that there?

EDIT: more info: Anadyr-1 (http://wikimapia.org/4263173/Anadyr-1)

and:

https://englishrussia.com/2015/04/13/the-nuclear-arsenal-of-chukotka/

and:

https://weirdrussia.com/2014/07/07/abandoned-town-of-gudym-the-secret-missile-base-in-chukotka/

"Among the variety of abandoned military bases in post-Soviet Russia, Anadyr-1 (Gudym) is possibly the eeriest one. Located in the close proximity to the ideological enemy – the United States of America, it used to store nuclear warheads for the missile base which had targeted Alaska, Washington state, California and South Dakota...."

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Thanks tartare - sad to see the reason given on the weirdrussia site about how the locals came to call the base "Gudym" - I'm sure there's a story there.