ARMED FORCES: Escape of the Boojum

Up from its launching platform at Florida's Patrick Air Force base one day last week swooshed a hot U.S. challenger in the East-West missiles race—the Snark,* a huge (74 ft. long, 7 tons), turbojet-propelled, surface-to-surface guided missile, i.e., a winged pilotless bomber, with speeds up to 600 m.p.h. and intercontinental range (at least 5,000 miles). Radar-checked and ground-controlled, it whizzed southeast down the Caribbean along the 5,000-mile U.S. test range that extends —by agreement with Britain—from Florida to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. Its flight plan: to proceed to a "scheduled turn-around point" on the range, come about and...