The Malmstrom AFB Missile Shutdown: Did a UFO Disable 10 Nukes? -

In March 1967, two separate flights of Minuteman nuclear missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana went offline within the same week. Witnesses at both locations reported seeing unidentified objects in the sky during the failures. The Air Force documented the incidents in base unit histories but has never publicly explained how an entire flight of missiles on independent systems could fail simultaneously. The case has become one of the most discussed incidents in the UAP field, though significant questions remain about what actually happened and why.

Former Air Force Captain Robert Salas describes the 1967 incident at Malmstrom AFB where 10 nuclear missiles went offline during a UFO sighting.

TL;DR: In March 1967, a glowing red object was reported hovering over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana during two separate incidents one week apart. In each incident, an entire flight of Minuteman nuclear missiles went offline simultaneously. Former Air Force Captain Robert Salas, who was on duty during the Oscar Flight incident on March 24, has testified about the events multiple times, including at the National Press Club in 2010. The Air Force has never provided a public explanation for the simultaneous missile failures. Skeptics argue the failures had conventional causes unrelated to any aerial sighting. Sources linked below.

Timeline

1963 Multiple reports of unidentified objects near nuclear weapons facilities begin appearing at Malmstrom AFB and other missile bases. The incidents are not publicly discussed and remain classified within military channels.
March 16, 1967 Echo Flight. The entire flight of Minuteman I missiles at Malmstrom AFB goes offline simultaneously during the early morning hours. Multiple witnesses, including security personnel, report seeing a large glowing object in the sky above the base. The incident is documented in the base’s unit history, which states that “rumors of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) around the area of Echo Flight during the time of fault were disproven.”
March 24, 1967, 1:30 AM Oscar Flight. Security guard Staff Sergeant Henry Schuur calls the underground Oscar Flight launch control center from the front gate. He reports a glowing red object hovering above the gate area. Deputy missile combat crew commander Captain Robert Salas takes the call. Within minutes, ten Minuteman missiles in their silos go offline one by one. The missiles remain non-functional for approximately 24 hours.
1996 Robert Salas goes public with his account of the Oscar Flight incident, publishing a written summary with researcher Jim Klotz. In his initial account, Salas denies being a “UFO junkie” and does not suggest extraterrestrial involvement, according to Wikipedia. He says he wants answers to the mystery.
May 2001 Salas testifies at the Disclosure Project press conference organized by Steven Greer at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., describing the Malmstrom incidents before a national audience.
September 27, 2010 Robert Hastings hosts a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., featuring testimony from Salas and other former military personnel about UFO incidents at nuclear weapons facilities. CNN live-streams the event, according to CBS News.
May 2022 Salas claims that Pentagon officials lied about not knowing about the 1967 incident, according to the Daily Mail.
September 2025 Salas briefs Congressional member Eric Burlison (R-MO) on the Malmstrom incident, according to reports.

Echo Flight: March 16

The first incident occurred on March 16, 1967, at Echo Flight, one of several missile complexes operated by the 341st Strategic Missile Wing at Malmstrom AFB. According to a declassified three-page USAF teletype that has since been made public, all ten Minuteman I missiles at Echo Flight lost strategic alert status simultaneously during the early morning hours.

Bob Salas briefs Congress on the 1967 Malmstrom AFB nuclear missile shutdown incident.

The base unit history for January through March 1967 contains a brief reference to the incident. It states: “Rumors of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) around the area of Echo Flight during the time of fault were disproven.” This entry confirms that UFO reports were associated with the incident at the time, even though the official record dismissed them.

Several personnel who were at or near Echo Flight during the incident later described seeing a large, glowing object in the sky. At least one security policeman was reportedly so affected by what he witnessed that he never returned to missile security duty, according to researcher Robert Hastings as quoted in Earthfiles.

The missiles were restored to operational status after approximately 24 hours of maintenance work.

Oscar Flight: March 24

The second and better-known incident occurred eight days later, on March 24, 1967, at Oscar Flight. Robert Salas, who was serving as the deputy missile combat crew commander, has provided a detailed account of the events.

According to Salas, at approximately 1:30 AM, he received a call from Staff Sergeant Henry Schuur, a security guard stationed at the front gate of the Oscar Flight facility. Schuur was, by Salas’s account, frightened. He reported a glowing red object hovering above the gate area. Salas ordered Schuur to not let anything past the gate and to keep him updated.

Within minutes of the call, alarms began sounding in the underground launch control center. One by one, ten Minuteman ICBMs in their silos went offline. The missiles were on independent systems, housed in separate facilities spread across the Montana landscape. According to Salas, they could not all fail at the same time by coincidence. Something had disabled them.

Salas has stated that the red object disappeared after the missiles went offline. Maintenance crews took approximately 24 hours to restore the system to operational status. The security guard who reported the sighting was never again assigned to missile security duty, according to Salas’s account published on CUFON.

Salas later signed an affidavit attesting to the details of his account. In his written testimony, he has emphasized that he does not know what caused the missile failures and does not claim the object was extraterrestrial. He has stated that he wants the incident investigated and explained.

The Air Force Response

The U.S. Air Force has never provided a public explanation for either the Echo Flight or Oscar Flight incidents. The base unit history for the period mentions “rumors of Unidentified Flying Objects” but states they were “disproven,” without providing evidence for that conclusion.

When asked about the incidents, Pentagon officials have generally stated that they have no information about them. Salas has contested this, claiming in 2022 that Pentagon officials lied about not knowing about the 1967 events, according to the Daily Mail.

The Air Force has not declassified any additional records related to the incidents beyond the unit history and the teletype document. No official investigation report has been made public.

The Broader Pattern

The Malmstrom incidents are part of a broader pattern of reported UFO sightings at nuclear weapons facilities that spans decades and multiple installations. Researcher Robert Hastings, who has spent more than 40 years investigating these cases, has documented hundreds of accounts from former military personnel who say they witnessed unidentified objects at or near nuclear weapons sites. The consistency of these reports across different bases, time periods, and witnesses is one reason the Malmstrom case continues to attract attention.

Hastings published his findings in the book “UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites” and directed a 2016 documentary of the same title. His research covers incidents at multiple Air Force bases, including Minot AFB in North Dakota (1968), F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming (2010), and others.

The September 27, 2010, press conference at the National Press Club, which CNN live-streamed, featured testimony from several former Air Force personnel about incidents at nuclear facilities. The event brought national attention to the connection between UFO sightings and nuclear weapons, according to CBS News.

Whether these incidents represent a genuine pattern or a collection of unrelated events that have been linked together retroactively remains a matter of debate. What is not in dispute is that credible military personnel have consistently reported unusual experiences at nuclear weapons facilities over a period of decades.

Opposing Perspectives

The conventional explanation. Skeptics, including podcaster and researcher Brian Dunning, have argued that the Echo Flight missile failures and the Oscar Flight UFO sighting are unrelated events that have been conflated over time. According to this view, the Echo Flight missiles went offline due to a common commercial power failure and were restarted without incident. The UFO sighting at Oscar Flight occurred eight days later, approximately 50 kilometers away. Dunning wrote that “there is no rational reason to conclude one thing had anything to do with the other,” according to Wikipedia.

Dunning has also speculated that Salas is “honestly mistaken in piecing together certain memories” and has “erred on the side of confirmation bias” as his account became more widely known. Some skeptics have suggested the “glowing red object” reported at the gate could have been the planet Mars or another astronomical phenomenon visible in the early morning sky.

The case for the incident. Supporters of Salas’s account note several factors that complicate the conventional explanation. First, the base unit history acknowledges that “rumors of UFOs” were associated with the Echo Flight incident, even though it dismisses them. Second, Salas has maintained his account consistently since going public in 1996, and has signed an affidavit attesting to its accuracy. Third, the simultaneous failure of ten missiles on independent systems would be unusual for a simple power outage.

Salas has also noted that at least one security policeman from Echo Flight was so disturbed by what he witnessed that he never returned to missile security duty, which suggests the experience went beyond a routine equipment malfunction.

The evidence gap. The core challenge with the Malmstrom case is the absence of documentary evidence beyond the unit history and the declassified teletype. No official investigation report has been made public. The witnesses who have come forward are recalling events from more than 50 years ago. Memories from that period may be incomplete or reconstructed. Without access to classified records, it is impossible to determine what actually happened at Malmstrom AFB in March 1967. This evidentiary limitation applies to both sides of the debate: supporters cannot prove an extraordinary explanation, and skeptics cannot definitively rule one out.

YouTube Videos

Capt. Robert Salas describes the night UFOs shut down nuclear missiles at Malmstrom AFB.

Robert Salas on what happened the night UFOs appeared over nuclear weapons at Malmstrom.

The Malmstrom AFB Missile Shutdown: Did a UFO Disable 10 Nukes?