Talos combined a solid-rocket booster with a ramjet missile and required its sections to be assembled before loading onto the launch rails. The viewer's account connects its development with guided anti-ship weapons and kamikaze-like threats, and notes surface-target and nuclear capabilities. Dr Clarke recalls seeing the extensive handling spaces on USS Little Rock during a visit to Buffalo. Storing components separately and assembling them aboard made the arrangement resemble a factory. That machinery helps explain the appeal of retaining mature guns while missile systems developed into reliable operational replacements.
Notable Point · 43:39-45:58
Talos and the shipboard factory problem
Talos missile sections were stored separately and assembled before loading, making the early guided-missile cruiser resemble a factory as well as a warship.