No More Time for Sergeant York

Weinberger scraps the controversial antiaircraft gun

Washington wits say that Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger has never met a weapons system he did not like. Last week even Weinberger's patience ran out on one high-priced military project. In a tense press conference, the Secretary announced he was scrapping the Army's fault-ridden Sergeant York antiaircraft gun, making it one of the most important weapons systems to be canceled in production since the Cheyenne attack helicopter was deep-sixed in 1969. "It is not worth the costs," Weinberger said of the program, which would have totaled $4.8 billion before completion.

The doomed Sergeant York, named after the famed World War...

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