As America’s Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile force ages, the U.S. Air Force is facing another problem: obsolete transport vehicles needed to carry missile warheads, rocket engines and other vital equipment.
The Air Force wants to buy more armored transporters to replace the current Payload Transporter, or PT III. The Payload Transporter Replacement, or PTR, will replace “the existing legacy payload transporter fleet (PT III) due to parts obsolescence, fleet age, increasing sustainment costs, and inability to meet current security/asset protection requirements,” according to the Air Force’s Request for Information/Sources Sought notice, which is due March 12.
The Air Force is looking for five more PTRs. In 2019, Armorworks won a five-year contract in 2019 to deliver 25 PTRs.
Most of the documentation — including technical specifications — that accompanied the RFI is restricted. However, the basic PTR vehicle resembles a large tractor-trailer that wouldn’t look out of place rolling down a highway. It is made up of a “specially armored” tractor with an integrated auxiliary power unit towing a “specially armored” trailer, according to the description in the RFI.
“The PTR is the sole platform for the transport of Aerospace Vehicle Equipment (AVE) to/from host bases to ICBM launch facilities (LF), and the sole platform for conducting AVE remove and replace operations while positioned over the LF,” the document notes. “AVE consists of the Reentry System (RS), Missile Guidance Set (MGS), Propulsion System Rocket Engine (PSRE), and associated items.”
Armorworks has described the vehicle as having “an armored cab and a blast- and forced entry-resistant cargo containment system to inconspicuously transport nuclear missile cargo in a controlled environment on air-cushioned pallets.”
Contractors responding to the RFI should list their experience in designing military-grade ballistic armor, as well as shock and vibration testing. They should also indicate their “years of experience in development and production of nuclear certified designs, working with nuclear surety organizations to achieve nuclear design certification, and management of engineering changes that impact nuclear certified designs,” according to the notice.
Transport vehicles are just one of many problems afflicting America’s current fleet of 400 Minuteman III missiles, which were first deployed in 1970. A September 2025 Government Accountability Office report noted that the Minuteman III is experiences challenges related to parts obsolescence and aging infrastructure and facilities.
There have been several attempts to replace the Minuteman, including the MX Peacekeeper in the 1980s, and the current LGM-35A Sentinel. But the Sentinel program has run into numerous snags, including design issues and cost overruns. This means that Minuteman may have to remain America’s land-based ICBM until 2050, GAO warned.
Michael Peck is a correspondent for Defense News and a columnist for the Center for European Policy Analysis. He holds an M.A. in political science from Rutgers University. Find him on X at @Mipeck1. His email is [email protected].
