Nation's First Missile Recycling Center Opens in Alabama

The nation's first missile recycling center, which will dismantle outmoded missiles instead of detonating them underground, is described by Army officials as a more prudent method of ridding the nation of such obsolete weapons.

The Missile Recycling Center, or MRC, which was unveiled at ribbon-cutting last week in Anniston, Ala., will destroy the 220,000 missiles stored at the depot while saving their metal and explosives for recycling. Army officials predict about 15,000 missiles will be recycled annually.

It also was estimated that as many as 400 new jobs might be created when the $15 million center begins operation and ramps up production.

The center will handle only the conventional weapons at the depot, which at a different storage site has Cold War-era chemical weapons that are scheduled to be destroyed in a $1 billion incinerator next year.

"The MRC is the way of the future. We'll be able to handle a wide range of obsolete missiles and recycle jointly with our fellow services," said Maj. Gen. Larry J. Dodgen, the commanding general of the Army Missile Command in Huntsville. "This is a win-win situation for everyone concerned."

Army officials said the metal extracted during dismantling will be sold as scrap and the explosives will be processed for use in other weapons or commercial industries such as mining, with about 98 percent of a missile's components salvaged.

The previous method, which is being phased out by Congress, destroyed the missiles by detonating them underground, with metal the only reusable byproduct.