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Once the decision was made, action was quick, drastic. The ICBM-got urgent priority in the Air Force. Since the ICBM is a "weapons system" which requires support from many technologies besides those of airframe building, the prime contract was taken away from Convair and given to Ramo-Wooldridge of Los Angeles, a young electronics firm staffed by scientists who had seceded from Hughes Aircraft Co.
Getting Things Done. In charge of the whole ICBM program is Major General Ben Schriever, head of the Air Force's Western Development Division. Handsome, quick-moving General Schriever, 45, is a former airline pilot, a former Army Air Corps test pilot, and he holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. His job in the ICBM program is like that of Lieut. General Leslie R. Groves, who bossed the development of the atomic bomb. Trevor Gardner calls him "vice president in charge of getting things done."
The far-reaching effect of the thermonuclear breakthrough did not stop with the ICBM. It was only reasonable to suppose that the Russians must be working on their own ICBM. Therefore, an anti-ICBM missile, though extraordinarily difficult, should at least be attempted. And since the Russians might deliver light T-N bombs by high-performance airplanes, the antiaircraft missiles, both ground-to-air and air-to-air, got new urgency.
So did missiles of intermediate range (up to 1,500 miles). The same prospective weight reduction of the T-N warhead that made the ICBM practical upgraded the medium-range missiles to weapons of enormous military value. The conclusions of Von Neumann and his nuclear associates affected the entire military posture of the U.S.
The fact that missiles are now No. 1 was reflected in Defense Secretary Charles Wilson's recent demand for $1 billion for the missile program. This sum is sure to increase as production gets under way, and it is sure to be supplemented by large items (for missile ships, ground carriers, training, etc.) tucked away elsewhere in the military budget. Another reflection was the appointment in August 1955 of Donald Aubrey Quarles as Secretary of the Air Force. Significantly, Quarles is a physicist and an electronics man. He worked most of his life at Western Electric Co. and Bell Telephone Laboratories, and became president of Sandia Corp., which designs and manufactures nuclear weapons.
The ICBM, which must range more than 5,000 miles to be worthy of its name, is guided only during a short initial part of its flight. During most of its high-soaring course, it follows an unguided ballistic trajectory, like an artillery shell. Today the ICBM has passed through the study stage and is well in the stage of research and development. Hardware is beginning to appear, and many well-proved components, notably rocket motors, are being adapted to work with each other. General Schriever believes that no further inventions are needed—only a great deal of high-level and costly engineering. He is prepared for spectacular failures, but is sure of ultimate success.