From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!duke!mcnc!unc!tim
Newsgroups: net.politics
Title: MX Dense Packing
Article-I.D.: unc.4320
Posted: Sat Nov 27 02:39:07 1982
Received: Sun Nov 28 00:58:27 1982

The idea is not that all the other incoming missiles
will be blown up, but that the various accompaniments
of the first blast (EMP, dust cloud, shock waves, etc.)
will knock those following off course. Since the MX's
will be in ultra-dense silos, it will be difficult to
take them out without direct hits, which will be
virtually impossible. The idea is that one shot is all
you get.

The big hole in this seems to be that if the Soviets
simply explode one moderate-sized bomb over the site
every half-hour to forty-five minutes, none of the MX's
will ever have a clear time for launch; their launch
will suffer from the fratricide effect no less than
hypothetical incoming missiles will. Of course, this
represents a significant drain on the Soviet nuclear
arsenal, but having our MX's paralyzed is an even
bigger drain on ours.

Let's have some more discussion on this topic.

					Tim Maroney
					unc!tim