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The Nation - News from Aug. 17, 1989

The second $26.5-million Trident 2 missile to explode at sea in three tests triggered its own self-destruct mechanism four seconds after it shot out of the water from a submerged submarine. The Navy said data indicates a problem occurred with the same nozzle system that caused the failure of the first Trident test. A second sea test of the Trident 2 with the redesigned nozzle system on Aug. 2 was a success. Officials would not say whether the latest Trident failure would push back their current plan to deploy the first missiles aboard the submarine USS Tennessee in March of 1990.

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