Word: mx
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...makes. In early April the President must choose a multibillion-dollar plan for modernizing the nation's land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. Though dozens of basing modes and several new missiles have been considered, only two expensive mobile missile systems are really in the running: the rail-carried, multiwarhead MX and the truck-transported, single- warhead Midgetman. Bush's wisest course might be to deploy neither...
...submarines, and nuclear bombs carried by airplanes. But over the years, the increased accuracy of Soviet ICBMs has gradually threatened the land-based leg of the triad, which consists of 450 Minuteman IIs, each carrying a single warhead; 500 Minuteman IIIs tipped with three warheads; and 50 more modern MX's, each with ten warheads. The Administrations of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan considered 30 or so ideas for rendering U.S. ICBMs less vulnerable to Soviet attack. But as a report co- authored by former Defense Secretary Harold Brown noted, all the proposals were rejected because they failed...
...critical question thus becomes which of the missiles to buy. The ten- warhead MX, which Reagan dubbed the Peacekeeper, is a proven, highly accurate ICBM. In one option, the 50 MX's already deployed in ICBM silos would be supplemented by another 50 "garrisoned" on special railroad cars stationed on military bases. If a U.S.-Soviet confrontation loomed, the missiles would be moved out on 180,000 miles of railway across the nation. The main advantage of this scheme is its relatively low price tag: an estimated $12 billion for 50 missiles carrying 500 warheads. A somewhat cheaper option...
...would sidestep the vulnerability problem by being deployed on hardened, tractor-drawn launchers. In times of crisis, the launchers could be dispersed over thousands of square miles on and off military reservations. But while military planners consider the Midgetman more survivable in a surprise attack than the MX, it is much more expensive: $39 billion for 500 missiles carrying 500 warheads...
...that has been set in the START negotiations. With smaller numbers of warheads on both sides, there is a strategic advantage in single-warhead missiles like Midgetman. By dispersing its quota of warheads on a larger number of Midgetman missiles instead of concentrating it on a smaller number of MX's, the U.S. could greatly complicate a Soviet first strike...