MX Missile Decision

Report Outline
Politics and Passions
Impact on Arms Control
Alternative Weapon Policies
Special Focus

Politics and Passions

Expected Reagan Decision on Deployment

By the end of the summer, President Reagan is expected to decide whether and how to build what would be the deadliest and costliest weapon in the U.S. arsenal. Under plans inherited from the Carter administration, the United States would build 200 new land-based missiles — the “MX” for “missile experimental” — and deploy them on mobile launchers. The proposed MX complex could cover an area as big as Pennsylvania, and its cost is expected to be over $30 billion. Just half of the 200 missiles would be capable of killing 30 percent of the Soviet population, roughly 75 million people, and destroying 70 percent of Russian industry. The missile is designed mainly for precision strikes against military targets, however, and it is meant to enable the United States to fight a nuclear war without being defeated.

Those who believe that the United States has become militarily weak say that it is imperative for the Reagan administration to move ahead quickly on the MX. They say the United States must have the missile in place by the mid- to late-1980s if it is to avoid the possibility of having to choose between abject capitulation and nuclear annihilation. Critics of the MX, on the other hand, say the missile will threaten Russia unnecessarily, upset the balance of power and bring the world one big step closer to doomsday. Even among residents of the western United States, who ordinarily can be counted on to take a hard line on defense policy, proposed plans for deploying the MX have run into sharp opposition.

Under the plan selected by the Carter administration, which the Joint Chiefs of Staff still favor, the MX would be based in Utah and Nevada. Each missile, weighing about 190,000 pounds, would carry about 10 warheads, each with a probable yield of 335 kilotons of nuclear explosives. Giant trucks would shuttle the missiles around at random among 4,600 launch sites (23 sites per missile). The trucks would serve as launching platforms for the missiles, and the underground shelters would be little more than unusually elaborate garages. The idea of this basing plan would be to confuse the Russians about where the missiles were located.