Word: mx
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Relations on March 17. It was a classic example of rhetoric that raises far more questions than it answers. Reagan lambasted Carter for scrapping the B-1 bomber three years ago, but then turned around and chided the Administration for proposing "a costly and complex new missile system" (the MX). The vulnerability of America's land-based missile force requires "a faster remedy." Like what? But Reagan has moved on to the next subject...
Appearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Utah's Democratic Governor Scott Matheson and Nevada's Republican Governor Robert List attacked the Administration's plans to install in their states the new mobile MX missile that is billed as the nation's most important ICBM of the future. Both men feared that the $34 billion missile system would do irreparable harm to their states...
Each of the 200 missiles would have its own oval "racetrack," ten to 15 miles long. Along every track would be 23 underground shelters. Playing a kind of shell game, a monstrous, 180-ft.-long TEL (transporter-erector-launcher) would laboriously haul the MX from one shelter to another. Or the TEL might leave the missile in place for a while and carry a dummy MX to another shelter or around the course. Watching from the sky, Soviet spy satellites could never be sure exactly where the missile was and hence would have to target all 23 shelters on each...
...MX tracks would be scattered over 45,000 sq. mi. of federally owned land in the Great Basin desert of Utah and Nevada. Matheson and List urged Congress to reconsider the sites because of the damage the project would cause the fragile ecosystem of the area. They were particularly concerned that the construction would increase an already severe water shortage. In addition, Matheson claimed, the invasion of the construction crews would change forever what he called "the chosen way of life" of people in the region's tiny rural communities. Beyond their plea to Congress, the Governors plan...
...involved in the technical direction of MX and intercontinental ballistic missiles...