Bull's-Eye

The Tomahawk strikes

Guiding itself as if by magic, the sleek orange and white missile rose from the sea and homed in on a concrete bunker on San Clemente Island, a goat-infested expanse of sand and brush about 75 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. In its first live test against a land target, the Navy's sea-launched cruise missile, known as the Tomahawk, scored a bull's-eye. The building erupted in a blazing fireball that sprayed concrete fragments hundreds of feet into the air and sent tremors reverberating through arms-control circles.

Launched from a submarine in the Pacific Ocean, the Tomahawk took...

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