Word: minuteman
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...DEFENSE. The President ticked off the specifics of the U.S. buildup in military strength over the last year, including a doubling of the delivery rate of Polaris submarines and the production capacity of Minuteman missiles. Because "we have rejected any all-or-nothing posture which would leave no choice but inglorious retreat or unlimited retaliation," said Kennedy, the U.S. has also doubled the number of ready combat elements in the Army's Strategic Reserve, increased the active fleet by more than 70 vessels and tactical air forces by nearly a dozen wings, expanded antiguerrilla forces and modernized weapons...
Each Atlas missile requires a five-man operating crew. But a three-man crew, working from a concrete bunker 60 ft. below the surface, can fire up to ten Minutemen. Such savings make the Minuteman the nation's cheapest intercontinental missile by far. At an estimated $3,000,000 per missile (counting costs of installation and ground equipment), the Minuteman costs less than half as much as the Navy's Polaris, a solid-fueled, second-generation missile that can be fired by a submarine from beneath the sea's surface. Originally, the Air Force planned to load...
Silent Silo. Cushioned in their air-conditioned concrete silos, the Minutemen will be able to withstand all but direct nuclear hits; the Air Force estimates that the U.S.S.R. would have to fire some 20 missiles at a single Minuteman site to have a 90% chance of a kill. Even the commodes in the control center will be mounted on rubber to withstand nuclear shock. A door weighing 45 tons will close off each silo to the sky. If an attack heaps earth and other debris over the door, it can be blasted open...
...Minuteman waits in its silo, its guidance system will stare fixedly at the North Star, its silent gyroscope will spin ceaselessly. Cranked into its memory drums will be the data to guide the missile to any one of several targets. The guidance system itself cannot be jammed by electronics once it is set in motion...
...signal ever comes, each Minuteman will blast out of its silo and, carrying a hydrogen warhead with over 50 times the explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb, set out for a target up to 6,300 miles away. That prospect should make any potential aggressor think twice before launching an attack against...