Word: mx
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...weary from the tax-cut victory, is looking forward to a few days of wood chopping and thinking on his California ranch. Then, if current schedules hold, by Aug. 15 he will make up his mind and soon thereafter tell the world that he wants America's new MX missiles to be air launched, ultimately from new and sophisticated planes that could stay aloft for days...
...Subterranean shock waves came last week from the secret and cheerless Room 31074 in the Pentagon. There Richard D. DeLauer, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, revealed a new plan to the special committee, headed by Nobel Physicist Charles Townes, that is assigned to find a satisfactory MX launching system. The session was chaotic. Most of the committee's 14 members find the air-launch idea doubtful because of structural and guidance problems, as well as the cost, which could reach $125 billion. But because DeLauer spoke for Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, and because Weinberger...
DeLauer proposed that the MX first be carried by C-5A Galaxy transports, redesigned and shielded against nuclear-attack radiation. But by 1990 they would be moved to radically new planes that would have structural materials and wing configurations permitting them to stay aloft for as long as a week. Until that airborne MX system is in place, DeLauer suggested, the U.S. could rely on antiballistic missiles to protect its aging Minutemen...
...that depth a missile is totally protected from any explosion, though clearing surface debris for a launch after a nuclear blast (which can turn sand to stone) remains an unsolved technical problem. Supplementing the missiles would be a new B-1 bomber and existing cruise missiles. Ideas for putting MX missiles on new submarines or surface ships were brushed aside...
...time, he will take an avuncular interest in even the lowliest aide and will gladly spare a few minutes to look at a secretary's vacation snapshots. In general, he tries to devote his own time to long-range planning and big issues like the manned bomber or the MX basing system, over which he is apt to fret and ruminate. Some feel that such agonizing takes too long and that he could make up his mind faster...