17 Minutes to Red Square

The highly successful Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile is one of the wonders of the U.S. Air Force's crash missile program. Only four years in development and proved in 83 launchings with only four out-and-out failures, Thor (like its Army-made running mate Jupiter) was designed for use by U.S. allies, has a 1,700-mile range with thermonuclear warhead. Last week ceremonies at the reactivated air base of Feltwell near England's bleak North Sea coast officially inaugurated three newly completed Thor bases in Britain (a fourth will be operational by next July), armed with 15 Thors apiece. For the first time the heart of European Russia was within range--17 minutes away --of Thor's lethal sting.

Feltwell, a tidy, red-brick airbase set in the green fens of East Anglia, has rattled to the thunderclap of British bombers and fighter planes in two world wars; in last week's simulated launching, it seemed a strangely silent world to the cluster of veteran R.A.F. officers who stood in a soggy snowfall with 60 U.S., British and Commonwealth correspondents and watched the five-stage countdown. But in just over 20 minutes--50-50 timing--three white Thors with the R.A.F.'s red-white-and-blue bulls-eye stenciled on their sides were pointed straight up into the grey overcast.

It was an all-British show, with blue-suited R.A.F. teams ticking off the catechism of countdown while a U.S. "authentication officer" stood self-consciously by. A cadre of 67 U.S. Air Force officers and airmen and 50-odd Douglas Aircraft technicians are all that remain of the original task force of 1,400 Yanks who first went to Feltwell. Since the Anglo-American agreement of February 1958, some 1,600 hand-picked R.A.F. officers and enlisted men have been trained in the U.S. and at British bases. They have launched eleven Thors into space from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base (nine launchings were successful).

Technically, the U.S. retains full custody over the nuclear warheads for Thor in Britain (the U.S. pays for missiles and warheads, Britain pays for sites and crews), and final permission to fire must be flashed over a special red telephone with a direct line to Strategic Air Command headquarters in Omaha. There is little doubt, though, that the British-based Thors already have their nuclear warheads screwed on firmly, since the R.A.F. made it quite clear that some are "operational" --capable of being launched at any time within 15 minutes. Another bit of window dressing, designed to allay the parochial fears of politicians in both nations: American and British "authentication officers" at each base are equipped with special keys, which must be inserted separately in the central control board, to complete the electrical system and permit the countdown.

Says one British official: "When you get right down to it, the whole thing is simply a matter of faith on both sides."

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