Word: triads
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...President's deliberations will be guided by the concept that has been the basis of U.S. nuclear deterrence for more than 30 years: that enough American weapons must survive a Soviet surprise attack to guarantee a devastating retaliatory strike. Pursuing that strategy, the U.S. has built a formidable triad of strategic nuclear forces: land-based ICBMs in silos, sea- based missiles aboard 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...
Although many respected observers argue the case, it makes little sense to worry unduly about the vulnerability of the land-based leg of the triad when it accounts for only 20% of the 12,000 warheads in America's strategic nuclear arsenal. Even in the unlikely event that a first strike wiped out the entire American land-based missile force, the U.S. could still obliterate the Soviet % Union with a fraction of the 5,300 warheads on its modern missile submarines and the 4,700 on its bombers. Though the first operational test last week of a Trident II missile...
...Soviets were moving toward meeting that standard. They also agreed in principle to subceilings, which would limit the number of warheads that could be kept on each "leg" of the strategic triad -- ICBMs, submarine- launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and intercontinental bombers. The U.S. wanted what it called "preferential" subceilings, which mandated deep cuts in ICBMs, where the Soviets had piled up most of their firepower, while all but leaving alone SLBMs and bombers, two areas of American advantage. "That's not fair, and you know it," said Karpov. "If there are to be subceilings, they'll apply equally...
Within the central "Triad," bound by Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point, Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1. Yet voters would just as soon send a member of the G.O.P. to the statehouse or the White House. "I have voted for J.F.K. and for Barry Goldwater," says Paul Hinkle, a purchasing agent at the Drexel Heritage furniture-manufactu ring plant. "I am a registered Democrat, and I intend to vote, but this is the weakest field I have seen in 35 years...
...claim, made during his final press conference, that the Soviets possessed the means to identify the location and megatonnage of land- and sea-based nuclear weapons -- even those deployed on submarines. If the Soviets could indeed pinpoint U.S. subs, they could neutralize a key leg of the U.S. nuclear triad. State Department and Pentagon experts were highly skeptical that the Soviets possessed such technology...