Word: minuteman
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Missiles equipped with the MIRV device have been compared to a space bus that travels above the atmosphere emitting warheads over specific targets. MIRVs could be carried only by the next generation of missiles-the Navy's Poseidon and the Air Force's Minuteman III, which will probably be operational within two years. Both have been successfully tested with MIRVs...
...Minuteman version, with a range of 7,500 miles, carries up to three warheads (each under one megaton) and some chaff that is released to confuse enemy anti-ballistic missile radar. Present plans call for deployment of 500 MIRVed Minuteman Ill's, in addition to 500 Minuteman II's with single warheads. All would be housed in 90-ft.-deep silos, located at least seven miles apart to prevent an enemy warhead from destroying two sites...
...protection to U.S. offensive missiles, Safeguard would give the President more leeway than he might otherwise enjoy before launching a counterstrike against the adversary's homeland. "I don't want to give Safeguard up for some trigger-happy system where you have to salvo all our Minuteman missiles," he said. On the crucial issue of whether the U.S. can preserve its assured destruction capability in the '70s, Foster said of the Wiesner-Chayes argument: "They may be right, but they can't prove...
...controversial ABM system, Laird made what seemed like a startling revelation. The "Safeguard" system was absolutely necessary, he said, because "there is no question" that the Russians are marshaling a first-strike force of giant intercontinental ballistic missiles that could destroy large numbers if not most of the Minuteman U.S. ICBMs. Laird insisted that without Safeguard the U.S. strategy of retaliatory deterrence would be dangerously undermined. Laird's report about the Russian first-strike capacity is still unconfirmed by the White House and doubted by many experts...
...told members of two Senate committees that the Soviet Union has gone ahead to install hundreds of giant S59 intercontinental ballistic missiles, each of which can deliver up to 25-megaton hydrogen warheads. (The U.S. Minuteman ICBM carries a relatively modest one-megaton punch.) The SS-9, said Laird, is far too potent a weapon for the mere destruction of cities: since the Soviets must have it in their inventory for the purpose of knocking out a tougher target, the U.S. ICBMs in their silos...