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Show UwMi says E! Citing Its strong deterrent deter-rent value and its location in the state of Utah, Congressman Congress-man Dan Marriott (R-Utah) said the MX missile program will be good for America's national defense as well as Utah's economy. Funding for the mobile missile program pro-gram is included as part of Othe fiscal 1980 Defense Department De-partment Authorization bill which passed the House. Noting that one -fifth of the $33 billion MX base will be located in Utah, Marriott Mar-riott said the state stands to benefit greatly from the program. "Not only will the U.S. have a stronger deterrent to nuclear war with the MX system, Utah will realize tremendous economic econo-mic gains in terms of jobs and tax revenues." The Utahn reported that Air Force estimates show that in Utah the project will create 885 direct jobs by 1982 to Thiokol, Hercules, Hercu-les, and Sperry-Unlvac, with about 1400 indirect jobs to suppliers of those companies. com-panies. During the construction construc-tion phase about 7,000 jobs will be created. "Thjs will be the largest construction construc-tion project ever undertaken by the military, and Utah is fortunate to be able to participate par-ticipate In it," said Marriott. Mar-riott. The race track type basing mode, In which one missile Is shuttled clandestinely between be-tween 23 covered launching sites, creates the least amount of environmental im - pact. The location has not been chosen definitely, it will be somewhere in an unpopulated unpopu-lated area of the state on federal land as far away as practical from human and animal habitats and usable environmental resources. "Utah already has tremendous trem-endous strategic importance with an Air Force Base, an Army depot and other important impor-tant military installations. The presence of an MX missile mis-sile site would decrease the likelihood of an attack because be-cause of its strong deterrent deter-rent value. In order to wipe out all the missiles on an MX base, the Russians would have to have twice as many missiles as they now have or can build under the limitations of the SALT treaty. That just can't be done, os the chances of an attack are even less." The total missile site, with 20 of Utah and 80 of Nevada, will consist of 200 missiles shuttled between 4600 separate shelters at irregular ir-regular Intervals. The Department De-partment of Defense estimates esti-mates that $33 billion would be required to put the base into operation by 1989, with an annual operating cost of about $440 million a year. "Utah workers and Utah resources would be used to a great extent during the entire en-tire life of the project. Utah would become an Integral part of a strong national defense de-fense system as well as its beneficiary." |