Word: warheaded
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...just about everything else is new." Burriss estimates that only 10% of the A3's components came from the A2. The new missile is about 16 in. longer than the A2, and its bullet-shaped nose is discarded after the missile has cleared the atmosphere, uncovering the warhead (missile engineers call it the rock) which is heavier, more powerful. According to unofficial reports, the A-3 packs 750 kilotons of bang instead of 600 Kilotons for the A2. The primitive nuclear bomb that leveled Hiroshima had 20 kilotons...
...space projects that appeal to such tough-minded civilians as Secretary of Defense Mc-Namara. An orbiting atom bomb might scare some people as it swept over their countries; but if it were called down on an enemy city, it would be no more destructive than a single ballistic warhead. It would be vulnerable too, for its orbit could be calculated and small atom-armed rockets could be shot up to wreck it. Orbiting military posts and stations on the moon would have even less utility. Objective military scientists believe that there may be some reason for an Air Force...
McNamara, while admitting that the treaty, by barring atmospheric testing, would prevent the U.S. from developing a 100-megaton bomb, told the Senators that without any testing the U.S. "can develop a warhead with a yield of 50 to 60 megatons for a B-52 delivery," and with underground tests could develop "a 35-megaton warhead for Titan...
...been for several years-committed to such "saturation" strategy. In its simplest terms, this means avoiding reliance on a few huge bombs, peppering an enemy nation with hundreds of relatively small ones. Since devastation does not increase arithmetically with megaton power, two 10-megaton warheads properly placed can do almost as much damage as one 100-megaton giant. The Pentagon goes under the assumption that accuracy-even in saturation-is the key to success, that if a missile's accuracy is bettered by 20%, it is equivalent to doubling the megaton force of the warhead. This can be done...
...McNamara said, work on most of these problems could be carried out without the atmospheric atomic tests that would be banned by the treaty. Atmospheric tests would surely be useful in perfecting a warhead for an antimissile missile, but McNamara insisted that satisfactory progress could also be achieved with the underground tests that the treaty permits. As for solving the blackout problem, which cannot be duplicated without actual atmospheric testing, McNamara only said lamely: "We will be able to design around the remaining uncertainties...