Missile Misfire

The sky above Cape Canaveral was clear, except for a few wispy clouds. At 10:50 a.m. last Thursday, the launch order was given for the first test-firing of a Pershing II missile. For 17 hopeful seconds, the flight looked perfect. But before the Pershing had climbed two miles, it started throwing off burning fragments. The missile, 34½ ft. long and 40 in. in diameter, was already disintegrating when an Air Force officer pushed the emergency button to detonate the small explosive charges packed on board. The nose cone, which fell into the Atlantic, carried no nuclear warhead. At week’s end officials were still trying to determine what caused the failure; preliminary blame was placed on a flaw in the first-stage rocket motor.

The failure of the intermediate-range (1,000-mile) Pershing II has politically important ramifications. The first 108 missiles are to be deployed in West Germany beginning 22 months earlier than originally planned, in late 1983. The rush is in order to counterbalance the growing Soviet arsenal of intermediate-range SS-20 missiles. If the missile has a serious problem—design refinements have increased the program’s projected cost by 56% since last year—West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt could be embarrassed. Moreover, American negotiators now bargaining with the Soviets over such nuclear missiles might find their leverage weakened.