Word: warheaded
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...Force's Convair ICBM Atlas, has scored two hits at a programed initial 500-to 600-mile range. Atlas, U.S. missilery's prime weapon (cost: about $4,000,000 apiece) is fueled with a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene, is designed to deliver a hydrogen warhead of megaton dimensions at a speed of about 14,000 m.p.h. to a target five miles in diameter at a 5,500-mile range. Atlas has 300,000 parts, is so thin-skinned that it must be pressurized to stand upright; its three engines, simultaneously ignited on the ground, can generate...
...Force has a "backup," or reserve ICBM, the Martin Titan, currently running twelve to 14 months behind Atlas. Titan is a two-stage, liquid-fuel missile with an Atlas-type nose cone and an Atlas-sized engine thrust that can power a hydrogen warhead more than 5,500 miles. Another advantage: Titan can be broken down into two parts for easier ground or air-cargo transportation. Titan has undergone static tests of its component parts, has not yet been tested as a complete weapons system, is not expected to reach test-flight status until fall...
Until the ICBMs are ready, the Air Force must depend upon its manned thermonuclear bombers reinforced by its only near-operational intercontinental guided missile, the Northrop Snark, an air-breathing, star-guided, 600-m.p.h. missile that can take a hydrogen warhead 5,000 miles to target or deploy electronic countermeasures over an enemy heartland to lure defenders away from main bomber strikes elsewhere...
...chemical compound, makes Polaris the U.S.'s first "second-generation" long-range ballistic missile; the solid charge will be easier, simpler, faster to handle than present types of liquid fuel. Polaris, the first true pushbutton IRBM in sight, is lighter and smaller, so cannot pack as heavy a warhead as Jupiter and Thor. Its ultimate success will depend for several years upon 1) development of hydrogen warheads lighter than present models; 2) improvement of solid fuels to get more reliability and longer range; 3) production of a fleet of new-design nuclear submarines, each equipped to store, transport...
...solid fuel is by no means a proved item. Solid-charge missiles have less thrust than liquid propellants, cannot carry as heavy a warhead per pound of fuel. Critics of solid fuel argue that it requires a canister that can withstand great pressures, that solid fuel blasts off with a jolt that is rough on the missile's complex guidance systems; the Navy insists that it can control the blastoff, but it has not yet tested its technique on the missile. Another key problem: how to shut off the solid-charge propulsion at the precise point needed to drop...