Word: ton
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Meanwhile, British Royal Marine commandos, backed by 7.8-ton Scorpion tanks, which move with relative ease through swampy areas, had begun their own breakout from the beachhead. Traveling eastward from Port San Carlos, they were moving along roads that were no more than rutted tracks toward the Falklands capital of Port Stanley, 50 miles away. Their aim: to launch an attack on some 7,500 troops dug in around the settlement, the bulk of the force that precipitated the South Atlantic crisis with their own invasion of the bleak islands on April...
...attacks against the fleet on May 25, to coincide with Argentina's National Day celebrations. Waves of Skyhawk bombers soon began screaming over Falkland Sound. The Coventry, helped by other vessels, shot down four of the attackers but was hit and sunk by later sorties. Then the 14,946-ton Atlantic Conveyor, a merchant ship hired for the task force, was attacked by two of Argentina's deadliest type of warplane: the French-built Super-Etendard fighters that carry the sea-skimming Exocet missile. The aircraft fired their weapons from a distance of about 28 miles. One missed the Conveyor...
...Kinokawa Mam, a 92,207-ton ore carrier, pulled out of Tokyo harbor last week on its maiden voyage to Australia. When Captain Yukio Imai wanted to change speed, he did not order a crew member to yank the traditional brass-handled lever. Instead, he spoke through a microphone to the ship's computerized engine control, which has a voice synthesizer and recognition device developed by Japan's Sodensha Electronics Ltd. The control device can comprehend eleven verbal commands, from "Full ahead" to "Full astern," given by the captain or two of his officers. To show that...
Navy Secretary John Lehman defended the Administration's plan to build 110 new surface ships, including spending $7 billion for two 90,000-ton Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers. The sinking of the Sheffield, said Lehman, showed that relying on smaller aircraft carriers, as proposed by Colorado Democrat Gary Hart and other military reformers, would be dangerous. Only large carriers can transport airborne defenses, including F-14 "Tomcat" fighters and surveillance planes, that will adequately protect fleets against modern missiles. The Argentine plane carrying Exocet missiles "would not have gotten anywhere near one of our battle groups," he claimed...
Hart responded that the smaller 40,000-ton carriers he proposes would, like the Nimitz, still be able to carry F-14s for their defense. In a letter to his fellow Senators, Hart argues that the sinking of the two warships near the Falklands shows how vulnerable surface ships are to modern missiles and submarines. It is wiser, he contended, to rely on a larger number of less expensive ships than to put too many eggs in one basket. Military reformers believe that the current state of technology gives an edge to those trying to destroy, rather than defend...