Word: armament
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Blame. Aircraft armament is really not much further along than at the end of World War II. Armament is the monopoly of Army Ordnance, a powerful, well lodged bureau which makes weapons for all three services, and operates in a field where resistance to unification is greatest. Sample: Ordnance and the Navy are now experimenting with two different types of 20-mm. cannon shells which will not be interchangeable. The arms experts think that Ordnance needs a little competition from private industry. Ordnance itself blames the Air Force, and gets some support from the arms experts...
...Russians have already started to bridge this gap, while (presumably) waiting for accurate rockets. In Korea, one armament man pointed out, 40 heavily escorted U.S. B-29s were suddenly jumped by 80 Russian MIG-15 fighters. The MIGs knifed through the formations, shot down six of the bombers in the space of a few minutes. The MIG-15's armament: two 23-mm., one 37-mm. cannon...
Blue-jerseyed plane-pushers, shouting like stevedores above the clatter of their tractors, hurried to get the planes back to the Princeton's stern for the next launching. Mechanics, refueling and armament men in scarlet worked the planes over for the next strike. In his chart room abaft the flag bridge, handsome, white-haired Rear Admiral George R. Henderson, commander of Task Force 77, listened to his pilots' reports on the results of their strike. One pilot's instruments had been damaged by enemy ground fire; another thought his plane had been hit too. A young ensign...
...funeral, Mayor Coëne, wearing his tricolor sash of office, stepped forward to read an oration. Said he: "I salute the mortal remains of Gaston Depestel . . . who has died without ideals in the unjust war of the Viet Nam, for the armament makers and the plantation owners . . ." At that point, an Indo-China war veteran put his hand over the mayor's manuscript and said quietly: "Rien de ça Monsieur le Maire" (Cut it out, Mister Mayor...
Since the missile makes only one flight, it needs no fuel for a return trip. It has no landing gear or defensive armament. All these savings cut its cost while improving its performance. Probably the biggest saving will come from reduction of running life. A missile must be dependable, but it does not have to be built (like an airplane engine) so well that it will last for thousands of hours. In most cases a few minutes or hours is all the life it needs. When designers and manufacturers adjust their thinking to take advantage of this fact, great savings...