Word: abm
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...strategic concept that Nitze publicized last week also put the Soviets on notice that whatever the outcome of the new talks, the Administration is committed to protecting its offensive forces with some kind of antiballistic missile (ABM) defenses. That is a reversal of American policy since 1972, when the superpowers agreed to severe limitations on ABMs in the course of SALT...
Some defense advocates reply that high-tech ABMs (which now go by the new initials BMD, for ballistic missile defense) might be limited in future arms- control agreements just as the old ABMs were limited, not eliminated, in SALT I. The 1972 treaty allowed each side to keep two systems; later that was cut back to one. The Soviets still have an ABM defense around Moscow; the U.S. had one around a missile field in North Dakota, although it has been deactivated since 1975. Some officials hope that the talks that began last week might end in a similar deal...
...Soviets have a vigorous ABM research program of their own, including work on technologies like laser beams. Their radar at Krasnoyarsk could very well turn out to be part of an ABM network. They are poised on the starting line - and perhaps ready to jump the gun - if the U.S. seems committed to a space race...
Meanwhile, both sides have stepped up military programs that could soon undermine what is left of SALT. President Reagan's Star Wars initiative for space-based antimissile defenses will, if pursued, violate the 1972 ABM treaty; the Soviets are developing two new types of ICBMs, while SALT II permits only one per side. Thus the arms-control constraints of the past are further unraveling at a time when the quest for new agreements is at a dead...
...ABM: Antiballistic missile, a defensive weapon that can shoot down incoming offensive ones...