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More than 20 years after the end of the Cold War, the brute reality of mutually assured destruction persists. It lingers because, in an uncertain world, it works as a deterrent.

The end of the Cold War did not eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons. In fact, the threat has expanded to new nations that wield longer-range missiles. “Rightly or wrongly,” BBC writer Kevin Connolly summed up in late 2013, “the possession of nuclear weapons edges you closer to a seat at the high table of world politics.”

Some players who already have seats at the table have long-standing geopolitical tensions with the United States. Russia still maintains 1800 nuclear weapons, and launch-tested four ICBMs in a single day in October 2013. Experts estimate that China’s growing arsenal includes as many as 60 long-range missiles that can

These devices, stored in circular containers, use the motion of a suspended mass to measure speed across multiple axes. For guidance data, a pendulum is housed in a gyro mounted on a gim-bal, which in turn is placed on a spin-ning platform.

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reach the U.S.—some can reach both coasts; that number does not count Chinese submarine-launched ICBMs that some experts think will be operational this year. North Korea has long-range missiles, and its underground deto-nation in February 2013 may be a sign that it’s developing a small nuke suitable for a missile warhead.

The Pentagon maintains that the promise of nuclear counterattack is the only certain way to prevent the use of nuclear weapons against America and its allies. Profes-sionals in the ICBM world talk a lot about deterrence. Maj.

Gen. Michael Carey, then commander of the 20th Air Force,

which controls land-based nuclear missiles, voiced the institutional view when he visited the offices of Popular Mechanics in July 2013. “We keep a lid on World War III,”Carey said.

America deploys 2130 operational warheads, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The Air Force alone keeps 450 nuclear-tipped ICBMs on con-stant alert at Air Force bases in remote corners of the nation: F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming, Malmstrom AFB in Montana, and Minot AFB in North Dakota. Every 24 hours two airmen descend by elevator into a capsule, where they monitor the health of 10 nuclear-tipped Minutemen III missiles in silos up to 10 miles away from the capsule. Receiving an “emergency action message” means they initiate a launch (see “Down in the Hole,” March 2011).

While other nations are fielding new launch vehicles, the U.S. is making sure that its arsenal of old but upgraded missiles still works. The Minuteman III missiles—originally scheduled for just 10 years of service—will be 70 years old when they are replaced in 2030. They need real-world testing.

That’s where the Glory Trips come in. The missiles, fired from Vandenberg, drop warheads 4800 miles away into the Pacific off a tiny atoll called Kwajalein.

Instead of nukes, the warheads (reentry vehicles) carry telemetry packages.

During GT-209, analysts from the Air Force and the Department of Energy will review the missile’s guidance, especially the Pendulous integrating gyroscoPic accelerometers. Evaluators pay particular attention to the engines, which were replaced during a $7 billion overhaul that concluded in

The Air Force emplaces GT-209’s ballistic missile with a transporter–

erector, a specially designed semi with a trailer that rises to 90 degrees. The mis-sile is lowered into its silo; warheads travel separately.

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2010. Data will evaluate how they’re aging. The Department of Energy monitors flights to verify the flight worthiness of the reentry vehicles. The Missile Defense Agency gathers data to learn how to thwart other nations’ missiles and war-heads. An Air Force “reliability scoring panel” judges the warheads’ accuracy.

Glory Trips have an added benefit of boosting the morale of the best mis-sile crews and maintainers. GT-209 is well-timed—America’s ICBM profession-als had a rough year in 2013. Two senior leaders, including Gen. Carey, three months afer his visit to PM, were relieved of duty for personal misconduct, and some missile wings failed readiness reviews. (This year looks even worse:

As this story was going to press, the Air Force announced 34 ICBM launch con-trol officers from Malmstrom Air Force Base have been accused of cheating on monthly proficiency tests.) Two independent reports found that the morale in the missile fields is sagging. One of them, an internal Air Force study by Rand obtained by the Associated Press, found that the personnel it polled suffer from

“feelings of hopelessness, tiredness, and a sense of being trapped.”

The drawbacks of the career are obvious, and all the key turners can recite them: living on remote air bases; enduring a Personnel reliabilit y Progr am that scrutinizes personal lives; undergoing ceaseless drills and tests; and dealing with a media echo chamber that reports even small infrac-tions—such as leaving a blast door open inside a launch capsule—as if they were national security crises. Some younger airmen, however, see an upside to the media coverage. “We are the forces they are talking about,” says 1st Lt. William Swinton, a key turner with the 319th Squadron at F.E. Warren. “It’s important.”

The airmen at Vandenberg who are conducting GT-209 do not seem demoral-ized. They are enjoying a rare moment to practice the trade that consumes their lives. For all the effort they expend on tending ICBMs, key turners spend little Airmen who work

with nukes must report physical and mental strains to officials: domestic fights, cough-med-icine intake, every-thing. A 2013 inde-pendent report says a PRP is needed but is bureaucratic and intrusive.

GT-209’s missile rises from a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 3:01 PST. After a minute of flight the mis-sile will reach an altitude of 100,000 feet, appearing from below as a pinprick of light in the sky.

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time in close proximity to the missiles. “I already knew that we hold ourselves to extremely high standards,” Fay says. “The Glory Trip not only reinforces that, it makes me realize how much truly goes into these weapons.”