Word: rockets
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...underground launch-control centers by a Soviet strike, their missiles could be launched, and in some cases even retargeted, by remote control from the Strategic Air Command's airborne command post, Looking Glass, which has a dual-key system. The firing could also be done automatically by the Emergency 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?...
Iranian military intelligence units patrolling the hills northwest of the border town of Bostan flashed a warning: the Iraqis were about to attack Tang-e-Chazzabeh, a narrow mountain pass straddling the frontier. Two dozen Iranian crews manning field guns and Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers were awaiting the signal from their commanding officer. Sure enough, an Iranian forward observer spotted the columns of Iraqi armor and infantry on the move. He called "Now!" into his walkie-talkie. The commanding officer yelled "Fire!" The guns roared and the missiles blasted off toward the attacking Iraqi units...
Then, without waiting for orders, 500 Iranian Islamic Guards and militiamen leaped out of their trenches swinging West German G3 and Soviet Kalashnikov rifles and Soviet antitank rocket launchers. Screaming "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great), they charged the advancing Iraqis and were quickly locked in savage hand-to-hand combat. Meanwhile, the Iranian regular army commander, startled by the untimely appearance of his fanatic countrymen directly in his line of fire, was obliged to redirect his guns to the rear of the enemy formations in order to avoid killing fellow Iranians...
...defense buildup begins in earnest, this erosion of productive capacity will probably start to pinch. The backlog for aluminum forgings used in military aircraft is expected to swell from 12 months to 24 months by the end of 1982. The waiting time for aluminum powder and other components in rocket propellants, now ten to twelve months, is expected to grow longer. The delay in supplying integrated circuits used in computerized missile-guidance systems is already 80 weeks in some cases...
When a worn, but serviceable, Atlas-D rocket boosted John Glenn's Friendship 7 space capsule 162 miles into space for man's first orbit of the earth, the achievement overshadowed an orbital trip made three months earlier by a 37-lb., Cameroon-born colleague named Enos. One of Project Mercury's Astrochimps, Enos passed the remainder of his Government service in relative obscurity. During celebrations in Washington marking the 20th anniversary of Glenn's historic spaceflight, the Democratic Senator from Ohio was given a surprise party. Enos couldn't make it, but a standin...