Word: triads
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...also hinted at some new flexibility on strategic weapons. Only a month ago they were insisting that no new weapons be added to either nation's strategic arsenal. But now the Soviets have indicated that they might agree to one additional new weapon in each leg of the strategic triad (land-based, seabased and airborne), which would allow the U.S. to proceed with its modernization program...
...years since the Enola Gay, a B-29 long-range medium bomber, dropped its atom bomb over Hiroshima, America's nuclear-weapons systems have evolved into what has been known for the past 25 years as the Triad. The name comes from the fact that U.S. strategic nuclear weapons are based in the water, on land and in the air. Defense strategists agree almost universally that all three legs of the Triad are essential because each by itself has weaknesses that are offset only by the strengths of the other two. Land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), for example...
...part of its overall military modernization, the Reagan Administration has ordered or overseen major improvements in all three of the Triad's legs. To assess the changing nature of the nation's strategic defense machine, TIME Pentagon Correspondent Bruce van Voorst sampled day-to-day operations in each of the Triad's components. He dived with the Trident submarine Henry M. Jackson off the Bahamas as the vessel made final preparations to join the Pacific Fleet, strapped himself into the cramped confines of a B-52 on a simulated bombing strike out of South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base...
...World War II cruiser, yet it glides under the surface at speeds of more than 25 knots (comparable land speed: 28.7 m.p.h.) and is capable of operating at depths considerably greater than the 600 ft. to which Navy sources admit. Tridents carry the single most devastating element of the Triad. Stowed inside tubes that cut like shafts through the Jackson's four decks are 24 Trident I C-4 missiles, each carrying up to ten nuclear warheads, every one of them with a yield of 100 kilotons and capable of destroying a midsize Soviet city. With a range of more...
Though some strategists urge the U.S. to place more emphasis on its Trident fleet at the expense of both the land-based and airborne parts of its nuclear arsenal, no leading strategist would eliminate any one of the Triad's legs. "There are no practical alternatives," says Vice Admiral Ron Thunman, who heads the Navy's submarine program. Robert Komer, a former Pentagon official, says, "It's just the natural balance of power and threat...