Word: irbms
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Then Came Termites. Jupiter was put into blazing competition with the Air Force's Thor IRBM, and the race more than occupied the energies of the Huntsville scientists. Even so, says Von Braun, the Army missilemen "had clear sailing for about a year." And then: "The termites got into the system again." Ironically, some of the termites were hatched by the Army itself...
...strategic terms, Turkey is one of the four areas that are vital (the others: Britain, Formosa. Okinawa) as IRBM sites if the West is to maintain its nuclear deterrent in the perilous period when Russia may have an intercontinental missile while the West has not. IRBMs launched from Turkish sites would reach well past Moscow, could command the industrial complex that lies west of the Urals...
...ballistic missile, but the Russians have an operational stockpile of several hundred shorter-range (800 to 1,200 miles) ballistic missiles deployed in more than 50 bases, with a range into Europe and the Far East. The U.S. Air Force is ahead of its schedule on developing its first IRBM, Douglas' liquid-fuel, 1,500-mile Thor. It has test-fired ten Thors, five successfully, two part-successfully, has a production line going, expects to deploy well upward of 20 Thors into Europe with "initial operational capability" this year. Thor is guided by an inertial direction system backed...
...from surface vessels or nuclear submarines. Polaris' solid charge, a slow-burning chemical compound, makes Polaris the U.S.'s first "second-generation" long-range ballistic missile; the solid charge will be easier, simpler, faster to handle than present types of liquid fuel. Polaris, the first true pushbutton IRBM in sight, is lighter and smaller, so cannot pack as heavy a warhead as Jupiter and Thor. Its ultimate success will depend for several years upon 1) development of hydrogen warheads lighter than present models; 2) improvement of solid fuels to get more reliability and longer range; 3) production...
Most of these moves were admittedly stopgap; e.g., it is entirely possible that neither Jupiter nor Thor but the Navy's solid-fuel Polaris is the IRBM of the near future. Neil McElroy has not yet had to put his personal drive or his organization-man's skill to the fullest test. Before he is through, he will have to. For the U.S. Secretary of Defense is no longer a man who prepares for hot war while the Secretary of State wages cold war. Indeed, U.S. defense shortcomings have been a major factor in the weakening...