Trident Test Is ‘Flawless’

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — With summit talks out of the way, a Trident 2 submarine missile, the Navy’s deadliest nuclear weapon, blasted off today on a “flawless” test flight carrying an unknown number of dummy warheads.

The test originally was scheduled for Thursday--the final day of the U.S.-Soviet arms control summit in Washington--but it was put off one day for political reasons, Pentagon sources said.

But it was clear sailing today and the 44-foot, solid-fuel missile blasted off at 8:26 a.m. from a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center.

It was the eighth test flight of the $23.7-million missile since Jan. 15, and as usual, no details were provided about how many dummy warheads were on board or where they fell in the Atlantic Ocean.