Robert Beckhusen
But in reality, the Pentagon has studied mobile launchers for decades and has generally found them to possess several distinct disadvantages. America nearly built two versions, a rail-mounted Peacekeeper and road-mobile “Midgetman” missile. When the military did commission prototypes such as the Hard Mobile Launcher in the 1980s, among others, budget priorities and domestic politics scuttled them. And that was during the Cold War.
Decades from now, the U.S. Air Force may embark on radically new method — for the United States — of deploying nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles. These would be mobile ICBMs carried on road or rail launchers … or perhaps other, even more unusual methods of keeping these weapons of mass destruction from being knocked out in a first strike by Russia or China.
The planning for a mobile ICBM force exists in almost total secrecy. But in April, Arms Control Today, the monthly publication of the Washington, D.C.-based Arms Control Association, reported that the Air Force is considering building mobile launchers to enter service around 2050 — with new nuclear missiles to boot — as existing Minuteman IIIs age out.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/american-mobile-nuclear-missile-launchers-really-bad-idea-22579
