Word: trident
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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 and inspected a Minuteman training launch capsule, also...
...nuclear-powered Jackson is the fifth of 20 Trident submarines planned for sea duty by the 1990s. With a length of 560 ft. and a weight of 18,700 tons, it is as big as a 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...
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...
Reagan was forced into a SALTbox in part because the U.S. will soon be in violation of one of the agreement's provisions. When the Navy begins sea trials of the U.S.S. Alaska Trident submarine in September, the U.S. will have 14 more than the 1,200 multiwarhead land- and sea-based missiles each side is permitted. To stay within the limit, it must either retire and disable an older 16-missile Poseidon sub or destroy at least 14 Minuteman land missiles. Hard-liners argued against taking either course; they wanted the U.S. to exceed the limit deliberately. Reagan chose...
...General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division in Groton, Conn. Lehman also took two Navy contracts worth $22.5 million away from the company, and will reopen them to competitive bidding. Finally, the Navy announced that it would hold up several General Dynamics contracts, including one for construction of the next Trident submarine, until it is satisfied that the company has established a code of ethics for its employees and taken action toward settling $75 million in overhead payments disputed by the Navy...