Calling them "dangerously irresponsible," a federal judge sentenced three pacifist nuns to at least 21/2 years in prison Friday for damaging a nuclear missile silo during an anti-war protest last fall.

Despite his strong words, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn departed from sentencing guidelines in punishing the women. The guidelines call for a six-year minimum term.

"This is not a win-win politically correct situation where everybody will leave this court feeling warm and fuzzy," the judge said.

Jackie Hudson was sentenced to 21/2 years, Carol Gilbert to two years, nine months and Ardeth Platte received three years, five months. All three were given three years of supervised probation.

"We're satisfied," prosecutor Robert Brown said.

Hudson, 68, Gilbert, 55, and Platte, 66, were convicted in April of obstructing the national defense and damaging government property last fall after cutting a fence and walking onto a Minuteman III silo site, swinging hammers and using their blood to paint a cross on the structure.

Officials said the women caused at least $1,000 in damage.

Hudson's lawyer, Walter Gerash, said he wasn't happy the women were going to prison but was surprised the term wasn't longer. The nuns had until Aug. 25 to report to prison but chose to go immediately.

During the hearing, Brown enumerated the arrests of the Roman Catholic nuns at earlier anti-war protests: Platte, at least 10 times, Hudson five times and Gilbert, at least 13 times.

"These ladies could not be deterred for the last 20 years. They will be deterred for the time the court sentences them," Brown said.

The case drew international attention to the three Dominican Sisters, and an adjoining courtroom was packed with supporters listening to the proceedings on a speaker. The three women, dressed in black, took notes during the hearing and occasionally swung their seats around to smile at well-wishers in the audience.

They said nothing during the hearing. Earlier, they defiantly told a crowd of 150 supporters outside the courthouse they were not afraid of prison.

"The hope of the world rests on each of our shoulders," Hudson said. "We are doing our part. What about you?"

Just before the nuns went inside to be sentenced, the crowd formed a large circle for a group blessing.

"Whatever sentence I receive today will be joyfully accepted as an offering for peace and with god's help it will not injure my spirit," Platte said. She choked up, stopped speaking and was hugged by the other sisters.

Asked if vandalizing the silo was illegal, Hudson said: "When someone holds a gun to your head or someone else's head do you not have a right and a duty to enter that arena and stop that crime?"

The nuns are longtime anti-war activists. Platte and Gilbert lived in Baltimore's Jonah House, an activist community founded by the late peace activist Philip Berrigan, and Hudson lived in a similar community in Poulsbo, Wash.

The three were arrested Oct. 6 at the silo on Colorado's northeastern plains. Wearing white chemical weapons suits, they argued it was a symbolic disarmament that did not jeopardize national security.

The nuns said they were compelled to act as war with Iraq moved closer and because the United States has never promised not to use nuclear weapons.

Some peace activists said the felony conviction was harsh and intended to have a "chilling effect" on other protesters.

After the nuns were convicted, they visited family and friends, and mad the rounds of potluck suppers and peace rallies. They planned visits to their mother house, the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Dominicans.

Gerash insisted during the trial the nuns did nothing to prevent the missile from "doing its demonic damage." He compared the women to Martin Luther King Jr. and American colonists who dumped tea into Boston Harbor.

On Friday, the defense asked Blackburn for leniency, saying even prosecution witnesses agreed the nuns didn't harm the national defense.

"If any case cries out for departure from the sentencing guidelines, this is the case," said Gilbert's attorney, Susan Tyburski.

Brown, however, said the women didn't leave the missile site when asked. He also drew gasps from the audience when he referred to a plan by activists to protest at various Colorado missile silos on Saturday.

"Tomorrow all these people are going to go out and adopt a silo," he said. "But for probably 40 years these missile silos have adopted us and protected us because there hasn't been a nuclear exchange."

Many of the nuns' supporters waved anti-war banners at the pre-sentencing rally, including Irina Zadov, whose sign read "No Blood for Oil." Zadov, 19, of Boulder, said she heard the sisters speak recently in Colorado Springs.