🪖 Colonial soldier 🚀 Nuclear missile

Minuteman

3 9.7

A long-range missile that carries nuclear bombs and is kept in underground silos

noun
/ˈmɪnəˌmæn/

Specialized

: misil Minuteman

Each Minuteman missile is designed to reach its target within minutes after launch.
Minuteman missile

And who was the captain at the Malmstrom Air Force Base with the Minuteman?

Examples

During the Cold War, many military installations were equipped with Minuteman missile silos.
I was the launch officer for Minuteman missiles.

Countdown to Zero (2010)
I want my Minuteman missiles.

Hollywood North (2004)
Specific examples of nontraditional jobs for Air Force women are security specialists and members of Titan II and Minuteman missile crews.

Academic text (1992)
All of America's Minuteman II missiles had been tagged for destruction, and the U.S. side of the treaty obligations was fully on track.

Fiction book (1991)
In 1963, George Mueller, an engineering manager from industry who had helped develop the Minuteman ballistic missile for the Air Force, was brought in as the associate administrator for manned space flight.

Academic text (2009)
From the look of the casings on those Minuteman ICBMs... I'm guessing the digital module's been bypassed... and you're prepping for full analog retrofit.

Godzilla (2014)
The United States maintains a fleet of Minuteman missiles as part of its nuclear deterrence strategy.

Surface Forms

Minuteman singular

Minutemen plural

Morphology

Minuteman = minute + man

Although the historical compound 'minute' + 'man' is real, this sense is a transferred proper-name use referring specifically to a missile system, which is not inferable from the parts.

Etymology

Minuteman as the name of the missile system comes from the earlier colonial Minuteman, because the missiles were meant to be ready to launch in a very short time, 'a minute', and so the name shows their quick readiness.