Yes, You Can Pass a Nuclear Missile Driving on Interstate 80 Through Wyoming

A truck driver’s 2023 encounter on Interstate 80 near Burns, Wyoming, illustrates how missile-related equipment moves through ordinary highway traffic. Roberto Figueroa passed a distinctive military semitrailer escorted by armored vehicles and police, while other drivers continued to use the passing lane. He later learned it was a Payload Transporter III, a roughly $1 million Air Force vehicle built to move Minuteman III components, including guidance systems, rocket engines and reentry equipment, between missile facilities. Former F.E. Warren Air Force Base commander Tucker Fagan says the photographed convoy was not carrying a nuclear warhead: the PT III is for missile equipment, and the Air Force avoids confirming details of its operations for security and public-relations reasons.

Nuclear warheads can nonetheless travel on public roads, handled by the Department of Energy in highly secretive Safeguards Transporters. Unlike the recognizable PT III, these vehicles resemble ordinary semitrailers and are designed with heavy protection and defensive systems. The U.S. Air Force is replacing aging PT IIIs with Payload Transporter Replacements, but both fleets are expected to be retired as Minuteman III missiles give way to the Sentinel program. The planned Sentinel system, estimated to cost $141 billion, will use the existing silos. The account contrasts Figueroa’s fear and excitement at passing what he assumed was a nuclear weapon with Fagan’s view that such transport is routine, while noting enduring public unease about nuclear-related projects.