The strength of MX missile disclosed

Press, 9 February 1985, Page 7

The strength of MX missile disclosed

NZPA-AP Washington The MX missile, which successfully completed its seventh test recently, is reported to be capable of delivering 10 independently targeted warheads within 91 metres of their targets after a flight of nearly 13,000 km. The MX stands 21 metres high, is 234 cm in diameter and weighs 87,000 kg. The Defence Department does not discuss the explosive power of the missile’s payload, but the Centre for Defence Information says that each of the 10 warheads has the explosive force of 300 kilotons of dynamite, about 24 times that of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The centre, a private, non-partisan, non-profit military research organisation headed by retired military officials, bases its information on reports made in aerospace publications and Congressional hearings. Twenty-one of the MX missiles are under construction and scheduled for deployment by the end of 1986. They will be installed in the states of Wyoming and Nebraska in rebuilt silos used for the older Minuteman missiles. The United States Administration hopes to acquire 100 missiles, if Congress goes along with the entire programme, and have them all deployed by the end of 1989.

The United States Air Force says it plans to conduct 20 live firing tests before deploying the first missile. The Administration of President Jimmy Carter had proposed basing 200 MX missiles in a multiple protective shelter plan which involved shuttling them at random round a large oval or “racetrack.” This was opposed by the Reagan Administration which adopted the rebuilt silos scheme for 100 missiles. Opponents have argued there is no good way to deploy the MX, saying that Moscow could compensate for the new hardened silos with larger warheads on Soviet missiles.