Word: icbms
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Your article about the first successful Nike-Zeus interception of a special target vehicle borne aloft by an Atlas ICBM [TIME, July 27] stated that "the onrushing Atlas ICBM actually carried a transmitter to clue the slender, 48-ft. Nike-Zeus bird on the target...
Serious Weaknesses. McNamara observed -before the Kwajalein test that it would be conducted under "controlled conditions that differ substantially from actual combat." In last week's test the onrushing Atlas ICBM actually carried a transmitter to clue the slender, 48-ft. Nike-Zeus bird in on its target.* In an actual attack, an ICBM might spew out "decoys" designed to baffle the tracking radar-as was not the case last week-or an ionospheric nuclear blast might knock out the radar altogether. "As advanced as the Nike-Zeus system is-and we believe it to be quite advanced...
...clearly was unsatisfied with the current state of U.S. anti-missile defenses. "At the present time," said Mc-Narnara when he put the brakes to the program last March, "it appears to us that no amount of money can make possible an absolute defense of this country against the ICBM.'" Despite last week's success, he has not changed his mind...
...fixed launching pad. Their Skybolts can approach targets from any direction, forcing an enemy to watch the whole sky rather than concentrate on already computed missile routes. And no effective defense is likely against the Skybolt's nuclear warhead, which will plunge out of space like an ICBM that has come from the far side of the earth...
...optimism possible-U.S. retaliatory missile power. Standing on a coastal hill, he watched an Atlas missile soar out over the Pacific, learned later that it had sped 5,000 miles downrange, landing within a mile of its target. It was the first time that he had seen an ICBM fired. Then, in the relaxing atmosphere of California's Palm Springs area, where he was a weekend guest at Bing Crosby's estate, Kennedy paid a 50-minute call on another sun seeker, former President Dwight Eisenhower. They chatted mainly about world affairs...