Word: fleets
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...First Family leads the sort of life that no multimillionaire could afford and no monarch can surpass. Who but an American President has a personal fleet of plush turbojet helicopters at his disposal and available on a few minutes' notice? Where reigns the king or dictator with a pool of jet aircraft of various sizes and speeds to accommodate his official needs or personal whims...
...other options under study are even more problematic. "Hard Tunnel" would bury the missiles 3,000 ft. down inside mountains; the "Big Bird" scheme calls for a fleet of mammoth airborne MX launchers. With the more far-fetched "Orbital Basing," MX warheads would be put into orbit only after a Soviet missile launching, and the U.S. warheads could then be directed at Soviet targets at the Government's discretion. The extra time to make momentous decisions would be valuable; the delay in deciding where to put the missiles...
...five-year-old Invincible, which so proudly led the British fleet out of Portsmouth Harbor last week, is among the ships the Royal Navy will lose. It has been sold for $315 million to Australia, which will take possession in 1983. But a brand-new replacement, the Illustrious, is going through its final sea trials, and a third carrier, the Ark Royal, is also under construction...
...jarred the imagination. Just as the late 20th century was elaborating new anxieties about nuclear war, its gaze flicking distractedly over the future, abruptly the 19th century came barging into the room: a plumed, anachronistic production of outraged empire in its panoply and high rhetoric. The British fleet steamed out of Portsmouth. To relieve Gordon at Khartoum? To lift the siege of Lucknow? The British were vividly time traveling. The ministers of the ex-empire took a bracing, almost archaically principled stand-a position that itself seemed an exercise in nostalgia: quaint, perhaps, but admirable. Honor was mentioned. The imperial...
...20th century, war has Dopplered up to the opposite extreme. Today the serious part of a global war might last no longer than several passionate kisses. That is why some bystanders witnessing the war of the Falklands find themselves almost charmed by its stately pace, its long preliminaries-the fleet steaming off from England as the Prime Minister quotes Queen Victoria; the weeks at sea as the foreign offices indulge in truculent communiqués and atavistic displays of national plumage. (The long interval between the patriotic eruption and the moment of actual contact also opens up room for negotiation...