Word: missilesâ
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...Rocket Communication System, a series of ultra-high-frequency radio packs launched into orbit in lieu of warheads by special iCBMs. If a submarine commander were cut off from communications, and if he were convinced that a nuclear war had begun, he would have no authority to fire his missiles???but he would have the capability...
...after all. Gromyko also raised for the first time with Vance a number of unresolved issues that had previously been considered secondary and had been dealt with exclusively by the permanent delegations, most notably cruise missiles. The Russians wanted, among other things, a ban on multiple-warhead cruise missiles???an exotic drone that the Pentagon had no intention of deploying during the treaty period but wanted to be free to test...
...warheads deliverable. Russia has not only more launchers than the U.S. (see chart page 18), but bigger missiles???with up to 120% more throw weight. The U.S., however, has almost twice as many warheads on its missiles. Thus, as Harvard Professor Paul Doty puts it, "If you are a [U.S.] hawk, you argue throw weight, and if you are a dove, you argue warheads...
...destroy civilization; the surplus, as Winston Churchill once said, serves only to "make the rubble bounce." In anything other than an all-out nuclear war, however, accuracy of missiles becomes the critical factor. Here the U.S. has a substantial technological advantage. It requires three of Russia's burly S59 missiles???each with a 25-megaton yield?to hit the same targets as one U.S. Minuteman III with its three warheads and total yield of 600 kilotons...
...Defense argued that MIRV advances might tempt the Soviet Union to launch a limited nuclear strike against the U.S. Under MAD, the only possible U.S. nuclear response would be an all-out attack on Soviet cities. That would not only be inhumane but suicidal, because Russia would retain enough missiles???particularly those aboard submarines, which are virtually invulnerable to attack?to obliterate U.S. population centers. Consequently, the President might decide to save American lives by not retaliating, in effect acquiescing to the aggression...