Word: minuteman
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Survival Silos. A "second-strike retaliation weapon," such as Minuteman or Polaris, must be able to withstand enemy attack, and have all its intricate systems, including communications, intact when the pounding is over. Said McNamara: "Our missile force is deployed so as to assure that under any conceivable Soviet first strike, a substantial portion of it would remain in firing condition. Most of the land-based portion of the force has been hardened as well as dispersed...
...Minuteman silos, sunk 80 feet deep in the earth, are "hardened" by thick concrete walls. About 150 such silos, holding a Minuteman apiece, are dispersed over hundreds of miles of rugged western U.S. terrain. McNamara argued that no single Soviet missile-no matter how big-could be expected to knock out more than two silos at once. Less reassuring is the fact that the Minutemen's hardened sites have never been tested definitively by nuclear explosion effects, and McNamara admitted there are "uncertainties" in the design. But if the silos did survive the crushing pressures and ground fires...
...addition," said McNamara, "we have duplicative facilities which will in the future include the capability of launching each individual Minuteman by a signal from airborne control posts." The mobile control posts are KC-135 jet tankers of the Strategic Air Command which have been converted into communications centers under the control of an Air Force general officer. Such an officer could, from his airborne headquarters, launch the Minuteman flights...
Following the Minuteman and Polaris on the arsenal list is the Army's upcoming Pershing missile-a 400-mile supersonic "tactical" weapon that can be zipped around combat areas via truck, helicopter or airplane. It can be set up, aimed and fired from its portable launcher in less than an hour; it delivers a bang of up to one megaton -which makes it a threat to entire cities, if needed...
...went far to justify the claim of those who have always argued that solid-fuel rockets can be increased in size much more easily than engines that burn liquids. Solid fuels, in fact, have been the backbone of U.S. military missile power ever since the success of Polaris and Minuteman. Built for the Air Force, the U.A.C. 120-incher is part of Titan III, which will consist of Martin Marietta Corp.'s liquid-fueled Titan II rocket, already operational, with two of the new solid-fuel boosters to help it into space with 2,000,000 Ibs. of thrust...