Word: abm
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...before they reach their targets without resorting to defensive nuclear explosions. Some scientists believe that radioactive fallout from such interceptions would be minimal, since the target warheads would be demolished without exploding. The Army insisted that Homing Overlay was "completely and absolutely compliant" with the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. that banned the deployment of defensive missile systems while allowing experiments to proceed. (The Soviets were permit ted to keep the ABM system they had already built to defend Moscow.) So far, the Soviets have had no official reaction to the Homing Overlay...
...mechanism for keeping the competition under some measure of control was SALT, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. While the arms race continued, SALT produced a series of pacts that established rules of the road: the 1972 SALT I accords, one of which severely limited antiballistic missile (ABM) defenses, and an accompanying "interim agreement" that capped the number of missile launchers (underground silos for ICBMS and tubes for SLBMS) allowed on each side; and the more comprehensive SALT II treaty of 1979, which limited bombers and missile warheads as well as launchers...
...less achieving an agreement. Star Wars itself jeopardizes what little is left of arms control. Despite Administration disclaimers to the contrary, an all-out Strategic Defense Initiative would surely bring the U.S. into violation of the nuclear-arms-control agreements still formally in force with the U.S.S.R., including the ABM treaty concluded as part of SALT...
...star wars" approach to nuclear weapons shouldn't scare only the Europeans. It would deeply exacerbate the arms race, and make everyone more insecure. Proponents of an ABM system argue that it would actually enhance arms control--first, by giving each side enough security to negotiate deep force reductions, and second, by reducing each side's fear of a preemptive strike. Developing ABM capabilities would supposedly change the arms race into a "defense race...
...build such a system even in the absence of a Soviet response would be a daunting task. However, as many years as we take to develop an ABM system, the Soviets will use to think up a means of circumventing it. Every proposed version of the "star wars" shield has an easily exploited weakness. The Russians could preemptively attack laser satellites. They could confuse tracking systems with thousands of decoy rockets. They could fire submarine-based missiles on low trajectories which couldn't be spotted. Of course, we might be able to solve some of these problems. But the Russians...