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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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082889
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08288900.037
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 15American NotesNAVYBack to the Drawing Board
Tipped with twelve nuclear warheads and carrying a price tag
of $26.5 million each, the Trident II submarine-launched missile
is supposed to give the U.S. the ability to destroy Soviet ICBMs
still nestled in their silos. But hopes for the Trident's scheduled
deployment in 1990 were set back last week when the weapon exploded
during a test firing on the open sea. It was the second failure in
three attempts; embarrassed Navy officials admitted that the
probable reason for the misfires was a design flaw that should have
been corrected on the drawing board.
Because the new Trident is about 10 ft. longer and almost twice
as heavy as the model it replaces, the missile leaves a more
turbulent, gaseous wake as it rises to the ocean surface. But
engineers miscalculated the amount of water that would rush into
the vacuum under the missile's rocket nozzles. Investigators say
these "water jets" interfere with Trident's trajectory and have led
to the two mishaps. Their conclusion: the missile must be
redesigned. Correcting Trident II could cost up to $20 million and
delay its introduction for nearly a year.