Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: phil@Apple.COM (Phil Ronzone)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Reliability of Ballistic Missiles
Message-ID: <6739@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 20 May 89 03:17:11 GMT
References: <6567@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: phil@Apple.COM (Phil Ronzone)

In article <6567@cbnews.ATT.COM> gt0818a%prism@gatech.edu (Paul E. Robichaux) writes:
>From: gt0818a%prism@gatech.edu (Paul E. Robichaux)
>To the best of my knowledge, the USAF claims a 95-98% readiness/reliability
>rate for the Minuteman III forces. (This despite the fact that they've never
>actually launched one from an _operational_ silo.) I don't know what the
>professed rates for the MX, Titan, or Trident birds are, but I would say that
>overall a 50-60% delivery rate would be about right.

Less than that. If the big one goes up, all kinds of last minute
targeting info gets loaded into ~10% of the Minutemen. These carry no
warheads, but transmitters. They are launched (generally first I believe
but I have no knowledge of doctrine) and then retransmit the info.

So right off the bat, you have up to 10% of your missile forces with no
warheads. This used to be very secret, until some unknown asshole Congressman
leaked it to Aviation Leak (8-10 years ago?).

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