Test of Burrowing U.S. Nuclear Missile Declared a Success

The most important test yet of a proposed nuclear warhead that could smash through the Earth’s surface to destroy underground Soviet command centers was a success, a government scientist said.

A bullet-shaped warhead armed with high explosives but “mock” radioactive plutonium slammed through 22 feet of hard volcanic rock in a Sept. 28 test at the Tonopah Test Range in New Mexico.

The first stage of a Genie rocket carried the 4-foot warhead casing aloft for 4 miles. The second stage drove it into--and through--the ground at 1,400 m.p.h.

Harry Vantine, head of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory project to develop the controversial Earth-penetrating weapon, said the warhead passed its most critical test so far.

The government research lab is trying to determine the feasibility of a warhead that could survive a plunge through concrete, rock, buildings or the debris of a nuclear war.