Barry O'Neill, 1991
"Great Hercules, what a novelty! Man is a crafty creature of many wiles."
-- Homer.
"O bomb I love you. I want to kiss your clank, hug your boom."
1. Operational
Minutemen missiles are pale green and white. ICBM vulnerability refers
to the danger that the missiles may be attacked in their silos, and the
green colour is related to one aspect of vulnerability. How so?
Answer
2. In 1957 a prominent figure proposed that the US and USSR hold a peaceful targetting match (without warheads) to see whose missiles were more accurate and reliable. Further suggestions were to remove the warheads, and have separate competitions for different classes of missiles, with radar tracking through the flight to make sure of no cheating. The proposer was:
__Nikita Khrushchev, __Harold Stassen, __Bertrand Russell,
__Pat Paulsen, __Edward
Teller, __Charles Stark Draper.
Answer
3. Since World War
II, the US has given scores of male names to missiles (Jupiter, Pershing,
Minuteman, etc.) What was the only female name attached to a US military
missile?
Answer
4. January 10, 1984, Warren Air Force Base, near Cheyenne, Wyoming: An Air Force enlisted man drives an armoured vehicle onto the concrete slab doors of a Minuteman silo, and puts it in park.
__ It was done on a Saturday night dare made at a local bar.
__ It was done to stop the missile from launching itself.
__ It was part of a demonstration
for the Strategic Defence Initiative.
Answer
5. In the early 1980's
in New York State, a local farmer rammed the door of an Atlas silo with
a truck. What were his motives?
Answer
6. Before the early
US strategic missiles were equipped with electronic locks, permissive action
links or PALs, they had security devices known as ESDs. What were these?
Answer
7. Two launch control centers have completed procedures for a delayed Minuteman launch (a real one), with liftoff time set for one hour hence. News arrives that the war is over.
__ The launch can be halted by either control center,
__ It can be halted by joint action of two LCCs, but that would violate procedure,
__ It can be halted only on coded orders from the National Command Authority,
__ There is no way at all to stop
the launch.
Answer
8. Until the late
1970's it was physically possible for a single two-person launch crew acting
on their own (without permission from above) to put a Minuteman into preterminal
launch mode (launch in an hour unless vetoed by other launch crews), and
it was also physically possible for two crews to fire a missile immediately
with no possibility of vetos. Then PAL-like electronic locks were installed,
that blocked a launch unless the crew received the unlocking code from
higher up. The change was not motivated by worries about the reliability
of the launch crews. Why were the PALs added?
Answer
9. The "football,"
a response to the first ICBMs, is the satchel containing instructions,
plans, and codes to help the President conduct a nuclear war from wherever
he happens to be. Carried by a military aide, it is said to accompany the
President at all times. Does that mean it travelled with Reagan on his
visit to Moscow? How could that be?
Answer
10. The Vice-president
also is normally assigned a football, but one declined it. Which one of
the following demurred at control over America's nuclear forces: Nixon,
Johnson, Humphrey, Agnew, Ford, Rockefeller, Mondale, Bush or Quayle?
Answer
11. Are there any
currently operational mobile launch control centers for US ICBMs other
than aircraft, and if so, what are they?
Answer
12. When the first
US ICBM, the Atlas, was not fuelled for imminent flight, its tanks were
maintained at high pressure. Why?
Answer
13. What US air-to-ground
missile was to be launched rearwards out of the tail of the plane, and
what was the reason for this mode of operation?
Answer
14. Which one or more of the following technologies was not first tested in Hitler's Germany?
__ ballistic missiles used on strategic targets
__ supersonic missiles
__ inertial guidance for missiles
__ multistage missiles
__ cruise missiles used on strategic targets,
__ underwater launches from subs
__ antiballistic missile missiles.
Answer
15. What country
named several missiles after its large rivers?
Answer
16. What country
named some missiles after its wildflowers?
Answer
17. The Jupiter
C, the rocket that launched the Explorer satellite, was really a modified
Redstone missile rather than a Jupiter. So why was it called Jupiter?
Answer
18. War Games: If
Minuteman launch control officers receive and validate an order to go,
and one of the two officers balks, how should the other respond, according
to correct procedure?
Answer
19. Which intercontinental
missile demonstrated its intercontinentalness by veering away from its
US test range and landing in Brazil? This event formed the premise of which
James Bond movie? Which research missile triggered a diplomatic emergency
by heading off towards Cuba? Which Soviet strategic missile flew awry on
a test and landed 1500 miles inside China? Which American intermediate
range missile killed a Cuban cow and later visited China?
Answer
20. In the vocabulary
of reentry vehicle flight dynamics, the acronym "PDV" means
__ pre-damaged vehicle,
__ probable deployment velocity,
__ (particulate density)/viscosity.
21. A World War
II German antishipping missile had a guidance system involving a rod lowered
to the surface of the ocean to sense the missile's altitude. Why was it
never used?
22. The US Army's
Lacrosse was designed to be especially accurate, to land a nuclear war
on enemy command bunkers, but during Nevada tests its guidance system messed
up. The reason:
a) its heat sensors picked up its
own exhaust gases and flew the missile in circles.
b) its receiver interpreted transmissions
from taxicab radios as an order to return to its launch point.
c) its radar emissions activated garage
door openers along its flightpath.
23. In a Minuteman
launch, what is the "twilight effect"?
24. A Minuteman
can be launched in a minute. True or false?
25. When Ronald
Reagan renamed the MX missile the "Peacekeeper," Russell Baker wondered
whether it would be armed with ten "peaceheads." The new name did not catch
on. History would have suggested that: a past strategic weapon was called
the "Peacemaker" and that name did not stick either. What was the earlier
weapon?
26. An outdoor missile
display has been set up at Norton Air Force Base. What kind of tree was
planted among the exhibits? (Think about this one and get it. Hint: What's
the Strategic Air Command motto?)
27. Which intercontinental
missile was launched with a radio transmitter in place of its thermonuclear
warhead that broadcast worldwide a Christmas message of peace?
28. Plans for the
Atlas ICBM set a range requirement of 5500 miles. What analytical methodology
was used to determine this specification?
29. During the 1970's
debate about the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty there was dismay that
Soviet heavy missiles were much larger than the Minuteman. What consideration
determined the Minuteman's size?
30. What is an MX
missile's modestyshield? In targeting parlance, what does it mean
to say one's warhead is aimed at a bra factory? What does it mean
to say that the Soviet missile-sub force has a higher indiscretionrate
than American subs? How does your hotel power affect your
indiscretion rate?
31. If an ICBM warhead
destroys another descending towards the same target, that's called fratricide.
What does it mean to say that a missile has been orphaned?
32. "Sentinel" was
the name of the proposed anti-missile system, but in midst of the fierce
1969 antiballistic missile debate, President Nixon and Secretary of Defence
Laird changed the name to "Safeguard", perhaps because the latter sounded
less militarist and more prudent. Ironically, several years earlier the
name "Sentinel" had been assigned to a US ICBM but was removed on the opposite
feeling, that its connotations were too passive for a weapon in the deterrent
force. What was the Sentinel ICBM's forceful new name?
33. Gyre and Gimbal
in the Wabe: For sub missiles like Poseidon and Trident I that update their
positions by a star fix,
__ several stars with maximum separation
are chosen,
__ a single star is chosen, and one
is as good as the next,
__ each missile is optimally assigned
its own guiding star.
34. Reentry body
is to reentry vehicle, as head is to __trunk, __target, __latrine.
35 What was the
"bathtub of opportunity"?
36. Which US remotely
piloted vehicle was unveiled to the public by a gust of desert wind? Which
US RPV was first shown publicly in a parade through the streets of Beijing?
37. The sand-silo
basing system would have buried an MX in a capsule 2000 feet deep at the
bottom of a sand-filled tube. For launch, water would be pumped through
the sand and the capsule would rise to the surface to discharge its missile.
The cost, environmental impact, and security features were excellent and
the installation could withstand an estimated five megaton blast directly
overhead. What was wrong with the plan according to the Air Force?
38. In the Multiple
Protective Shelter System, Jimmy Carter's preferred basing for the MX,
fake capsules were mixed in with real missiles and shuttled between concrete
shelters like a shell game. What would have been in the fake capsules?
39. According to
General John Chain, head of the Strategic Air Command, MX rail garrison
trains will be fixed up to look like well-worn trains, "rusty with peeling
paint." However a functionally related and observable difference of MX-carrying
trains will give them away. What is it?
40. One basing mode
suggested for the MX missiles was to mount them on small submarines, and
station them in the Great Lakes to foil Soviet antisub forces. Whatever
other problems this plan faced, it would violate an arms control treaty
currently in force. How so?
41. Canada found
out about US plans to base this missile on Canadian territory only when
the Pentagon publically released a map showing its planned base locations.
42. A hypothetical
MX has been sitting in its silo in Wyoming, another at the North Pole.
Each is fired at the other's location. Their targets are equal distances
away. Which is more likely to hit its target?
43. Which missile
justified the confidence of officials by flying across populated territory,
even over a large city, to detonate its nuclear warhead 500 miles downrange?
(Hint: Not an American missile. Has the US ever launched a strategic missile
and had its nuclear warhead detonate at the end of its trajectory?)
44. What sport should
you practice if you want to win the covetted Blanchard Trophy?
45. What was the
organizational purpose of the group Extract Poisonous Nails?
46. McGuire Air
Force Base, in New Jersey, is the site of a concrete slab, six inches thick,
three acres in area, surrounded by a barbed wire fence. What event does
it commemorate?
47. Blazing Silos:
Which strategic missile exploded and contaminated the launch area with
plutonium? Which missile along with its silo was destroyed by a falling
wrench socket? Which rocket was launched by a bolt of lightning?
48. On the Blink:
During the Cuban missile crisis an experimental warning radar in Morristown,
New Jersey, was pressed into service to watch for an attack from Cuba.
Which rocket, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, did its untested electronics
mistake for a Soviet missile rising from Cuba?
49. (EI)2O:
On your "silo farm" you have some "tractors". What country are you in?
50. In the vocabulary
of liquid propellant technology, what is a "hard start"?
51. Titans are no
longer operational, but at Green Valley, Arizona, one silo-with-missile
remains intact as a museum. How is the existence of this missile handled
within the proposed START agreement?
52. The United States
possesses a Soviet nuclear missile. How did it come by it?
53. After the Titan
II's were removed and their launch centers disabled, the sites stood for
six months before an attempt was made to reclaim the land, because:
__ SALT conventions specified this
interval to let the Soviet satellites check that the Titans were really
gone.
__ Scrubbing crews were afraid that
the hypergolic fuels in the Titan storage tanks had leaked during disassembly.
The waiting period was necessary to be sure the chemicals had dissipated.
__ There was no economical way to
fill up an empty silo, so the General Services Administration did not want
to reclaim the land, and acted only after pressure from the local members
of Congress.
54. In line with
the Scowcroft Commission Report, 50 MX missiles are installed in silos
built for Minuteman IIs. An MX is about 40% wider than a Minuteman, so
how can it fit inside?
55. Looking Glass
aircraft have the mission of collecting information on post-attack damage
and taking over the firing of ICBMs. Why are they called Looking Glass?
56. Below is the
official Soviet picture of an SS-5 (the type that triggered the Cuban missile
crisis). It was conveyed to the United States as part of the INF Treaty,
so that American inspection crews would know one when they saw one.
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The closest translation of the lettering on the missile is:
__"HANDLE WITH CARE",
__"THIS END UP",
__"DISPOSE OF PROPERLY."
Answer
57. To say a nuclear
weapon is "inherently one-point safe" means that it is designed so that
if its chemical explosive shell were to detonate at one point, from the
weapon being struck or dropped, for example, the impact could not cause
a significant nuclear blast. Are all US ICBM warheads inherently one-point
safe?
Answer
58. Each B-2 bomber
will be roughly worth its weight in gold, (unloaded, not including ground
support equipment.) The Aquila surveillance drone was cancelled in 1987,
but had the program gone ahead each one would have been worth its weight
in __ silver __ gold __ platinum __ plutonium __ tritium?
Answer
59. The largest
warhead ever carried by a US missile was nine megatons, on the Titan II.
The second largest warhead was still so big that its underground
test had to be moved to Alaska. Which missile carried it? (Hint: not a
surface-to-surface missile.)
Answer
60. A problem with
launching missiles underwater is getting them to the surface. Igniting
the rocket engine inside the submarine, for example, will not do. An early
plan for the Polaris missile had the submarine releasing a column of soap
bubbles, and the missile rising up through the froth, which would be less
dense than seawater. What is the present system?
Answer
61. "I sound my
barbaric
yawp over the roofs of the world. /The last scud of day holds back for
me."
-- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself.
Scud is not an acronym. What does
the word mean? Why does the missile bear that name?
Answer
62. During the Gulf
War, a change was made in the software controlling the Patriot missile,
specifically the altitude of the intercept point. What had been the problem?
Answer
63. Essay question:
In April 1991 an armed Sidewinder missile was recovered from a grassy area
near a wharf in Sheboygan, Michigan, about twenty feet from shops and restaurants.
It had a live warhead, its engine had been fired and its fuel was gone,
it had lain there about a week. Invent a plausible scenario that brought
it there.
Answer
64. If "Peace is
Our Profession" is SAC's motto, what is the motto of the US Navy ballistic
missile submarine force? (By the by, in the late 1980's SAC's motto
was temporarily changed. To what?)
Answer
65. "Goodness overcomes
evilness," was the official motto of what critical event in the history
of missilery?
Answer
66. After the Gulf
War, President Bush publicly offered thanks to the Creator for the Patriot
missile. What passage from the Book of Jeremiah predicted the Patriot's
success?
Answer
67. The nosecone
of the Navy's Trident missile is made of what material, and why?
Answer
68. The Nike-Ajax and Nike-Hercules
anti-aircraft missiles had a launcher that was quite heavy. Rather
than rotate the launcher towards the plane, the missile was launched almost
vertically then headed off in the target's direction. Why almost
vertically?
Answer
69. Port and starboard:
There are five levels of alert for US strategic forces, DEFCONs 1 to 5.
Suppose DEFCON 1 has just been declared. You are an SSBN captain. Should
you be preparing to return home or to execute your role in the SIOP?
Answer
70. The first
stage of a missile is __ the one on top, __ the one on the bottom.
71. What was the first multiple warhead US missile?
(Warning: this might be thought of as a trick question.)
72. Extra bonus
question: (Knowing the answer to this last one is very important. Confusion
on it embarrassed President Reagan, so get it right and receive full credit
for the quiz.) Submarine-launched ballistic missiles
__ can be recalled after launch __
cannot be recalled after launch.
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