Word: rockets
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Bomarc (Boeing) is a supersonic, long-range antiaircraft missile launched from the ground. Boosted into the air by an Aerojet rocket motor, it flies during most of its course on two ram-jets (Marquardt Aircraft Co.). It carries a warhead whose fireball is capable of knocking out more than one bomber of an invading fleet. When in operation, the Bomarc will be stationed in sheds on likely tracks of enemy bombers. Designed to be fired at a moment's notice, it can cover several hundred miles while a manned interceptor is getting clear of the ground...
Nike. In the antiaircraft division, the Army has the well-publicized Nike (rhymes with Mikey), a liquid-fuel rocket launched by a solid-fuel booster and steered toward invading bombers by radio. The Nike dates back to the Keller era and is not the last word, but the Army believes that it will hit any attacking bomber sent over in the near future. Admittedly the Nike is a point defense weapon with only moderate lateral range. But the Army has so many Nike batteries at strategic points that their ranges already overlap...
Redstone. The Army's most ambitious weapon is the Redstone, a surface-to-surface ballistic rocket designed at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala., with the help of 120 German V-2 experts. Led by Wernher von Braun, they have given their new country the biggest rocket that has actually been flown. It is a great, sharp-nosed metal cylinder. In accordance with Army doctrine, it is tough, can stand quick transportation and quick firing from enemy-influenced territory. Tested many times from the monstrous steel tower that sticks up above the scrub palmetto of Cape Canaveral, Fla., the Redstone...
Corporal is a result of the Korean war, when Army chiefs called for the best missile that could be put into production almost immediately. The best proved to be a moderate-range research rocket developed by Caltech's Jet Propulsion Center. It was a scientist's baby, unduly complicated. Corporal units are ready for action; but there are worried doubts about its reliability...
Little John is a "free" (unguided) rocket descended from the crude but operational Honest John. It is small enough to be transported in ordinary trucks, and will do the duty of divisional artillery. Little John is big enough to carry an atomic charge, and many can be fired at the same time, so the effect behind enemy lines should be considerable...