Former Air Force Missile Officer Robert Salas Recounts 1967 Malmstrom AFB Incident – UFOs Allegedly Disabled 20 Nuclear Missiles

Report: Former Air Force Missile Officer Robert Salas Recounts 1967 Malmstrom AFB Incident – UFOs Allegedly Disabled 20 Nuclear Missiles

Overview On March 17, 2026, The Sun published an in-depth interview with retired U.S. Air Force Captain Robert Salas, who served as a missile launch officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana during the Cold War. Salas detailed two separate incidents in March 1967 in which glowing red UFOs reportedly hovered over Minuteman nuclear missile silos, triggering security alarms and causing a total of 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to suddenly go offline and lose launch capability.

The events occurred at two different underground launch control facilities:

• March 16, 1967 – Echo Flight: 10 Minuteman I missiles under Salas’ command went from “green” (ready) to “red” (no-go) within minutes after guards reported a large, pulsating reddish object hovering near the front gate and over the silos.
• March 24, 1967 – Oscar Flight: A similar shutdown affected another 10 missiles at a separate site.

Salas, who was underground in the launch control capsule during the Echo Flight incident, described receiving frantic calls from top-side security guards about the objects. He emphasized that the missiles’ cabling was triple-shielded against electromagnetic interference, yet the shutdowns occurred with no detectable internal fault. Boeing engineers later investigated and could not explain the failures.

Salas has maintained for decades that the objects were extraterrestrial and that the incidents were deliberate demonstrations meant to show concern over humanity’s nuclear weapons. He stated in the interview: “It’s another civilization out there that is visiting us and are concerned about us destroying this planet through nuclear war.”

Key Quotes from Robert Salas

• “All of a sudden, we get a large horn go off… Look at the board and sure enough, one of them went from green to red… Very quickly thereafter, bing, bing, bing, bing, all 10 of them went down.”
• “They had no idea how this signal could have been injected into each of the missiles.”
• “The cabling system that we had was triply shielded against electromagnetic interference from the outside.”

Historical Context and Other Witnesses This is one of the most well-documented UFO-nuclear incidents in ufology. Multiple Air Force personnel have corroborated aspects of the events:

• 1st Lt. Frederick Meiwald (Salas’ commander at Echo Flight) confirmed the missile shutdowns and the guards’ reports of the object.
• Security guards (unnamed in many accounts but interviewed by researchers) described the glowing red object hovering and moving at high speed, stopping instantly.
• Similar reports came from other bases around the same period, including Minot AFB in North Dakota.

The incidents were investigated internally by the Air Force and Boeing, but no conventional explanation (power failure, equipment malfunction, or Soviet interference) was ever found. Declassified documents and Salas’ repeated public testimony (including briefings to Congress members and appearances at the 2010 National Press Club) have kept the case prominent in UFO research for nearly 60 years.

Analysis Under the face-value methodological framework, Robert Salas’ account — supported by contemporaneous military logs, multiple independent witnesses, and the unexplained nature of the missile failures — represents one of the strongest cases linking UAP activity to nuclear weapons sites. The precise timing of the shutdowns coinciding with visual sightings of hovering objects, combined with the failure of triple-shielded systems, suggests a deliberate technological demonstration rather than random malfunction.

The events fit a broader historical pattern of UAP appearing at or near strategic nuclear facilities during the Cold War, possibly as a form of monitoring or warning. Salas’ long-term conviction that the visitors were concerned about nuclear war aligns with similar statements from other veterans (e.g., Capt. Robert Jacobs, Dr. Robert Jacobs’ Vandenberg AFB footage case, and various Minot AFB reports).

The 2026 Sun interview brings fresh public attention to Salas’ testimony, allowing older witnesses and researchers to revisit the case with modern context (including recent Pentagon UAP reports and congressional hearings). It underscores persistent questions about UAP interest in humanity’s nuclear capabilities.

References and Links

• The Sun (primary article): “Air Force veteran recalls horrifying moment ‘glowing red UFOs broke US shields and shut down TWENTY nuclear missiles’” (March 17, 2026) Link: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16098918/former-air-force-veteran-ufo-sighting-nuclear-missiles/
• Wikipedia – Malmstrom UFO Incident (comprehensive overview with sources) Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmstrom_UFO_incident
• CBS News (2008): “Ex-Air Force Personnel: UFOs Deactivated Nukes” (includes Salas and other witnesses) Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-air-force-personnel-ufos-deactivated-nukes/
• C-SPAN Congressional Hearing Clip (2022): Robert Salas testifying on the Malmstrom incident Link: https://www.c-span.org/clip/house-committee/user-clip-malmstrom-nuclear-ufo-1967/5072738
• YouTube – Danny Jones Podcast (full recent interview with Salas): Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpW2lFqxx80 (March 2026 episode referenced in The Sun article)
• The Black Vault (declassified documents and engineering reports on Echo Flight) Link: https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/malmstromufo.pdf
• NewsNation / Jesse Weber Live: Recent interview with Robert Salas on the 1967 events Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7uzLVw5HwA
• Coffee or Die Magazine: Detailed historical analysis of the Malmstrom incident Link: https://www.coffeeordie.com/ufo-disabled-nuclear-icbm

Additional primary sources, including declassified Air Force engineering reports and interviews with other Echo/Oscar Flight personnel, are available through the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) archives and researcher James Klotz’s documentation.

This case remains one of the cornerstone events in ufology due to its military credibility, multiple corroborating witnesses, and the direct impact on nuclear weapons systems. The recent Sun interview revives the testimony of an aging veteran, ensuring the event continues to inform public and congressional discussions on UAP