THE BIG MISS IN MISSILES: Interservice Rivalry Is Costly

A WAR or two ago, the division of missions among the Army, Navy and Air Force was a matter of Biblical simplicity: the Army's domain was the land, the Navy's the sea, the Air Force's the air. Missiles upset this neat and workable pattern. To Army eyes, missiles are essentially artillery. The Air Force considers them unmanned planes. Navymen see them as modifications of carrier planes and battleship guns. Fearing loss of missions, prestige and even existence, the three services have scrambled fiercely for shares of the missile field. Result: three missile programs that duplicate and...

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