DEFENSE: F.O.B. Canaveral

Installed in Britain last week: the first of 60 Thor 1,500-mile missiles that the U.S. last February promised its important island ally. Battened placidly in the belly of a Douglas 0-133 transport, the ballistic bird was flown secretly to the U.S. Air Force base at Lakenheath, England, was greeted unenthusiastically by the British press—mirroring an anti-missile feeling among both Labor and Conservative leaders, who fear an all-out commitment to missile defense. Fitted out with a thermonuclear warhead (which stays in U.S. hands), Thor can blast from British soil 15 minutes after the first alert, minutes later impact hundreds of miles inside Russia. Reliability, now an acceptable 50%, will be increased in later arrivals. Estimated date of readiness of Britain’s first Thor squadron: December.