Word: icbms
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Army: Russian progress in intercontinental missiles will gradually make obsolete the Air Force's Strategic Air Command. To defend U.S. cities in the foreseeable future, major allocations must be committed now for an effective ICBM counterweapon. The current Army Nike system-both physically and technically -can be used for the more complex Nike-Zeus anti-missile system...
...Force: The surest guarantee of protection is offensive-not defensive-power. The tremendous cost of a defensive missile program would seriously compete with the evolving knockout strike force. Moreover, to stop an ICBM effectively-once its course is determined-an anti-ICBM must be launched into the trajectory from the target vicinity, and ICBM targets in the U.S. will be strike-force bases, not cities; therefore, even Nike sites are already wasted...
...Force (with its Wizard anti-missile project) has yet drawn complete plans or even formulated solid concepts for countering ballistic missiles. Far more demanding than the anti-missile itself is development of the fully integrated and highly automatic system required-in the limited time available -to detect an ICBM on its way. track it, predict its trajectory and, at the proper instant, launch an intercept missile with nuclear or thermonuclear warhead. And what is the proper instant? When the missile is still in outer space? Or after it has slowed within the atmosphere? How will the system operate...
...danger of such confrontation can be reduced by evasive maneuvers at hypervelocity. Instead of bulling its way to its target like a crude ICBM, a hyperspeed missile will either skip or glide. If it skips, it will climb into space about half as high as a ballistic missile of the same range. Instead of plunging down to earth, it will skip off the top of the atmosphere like a flat stone off the surface of a pond. By doing this several times, if necessary, it can reach a distant target over an unpredictable course. The glide missile is simpler...
...Russians did not mean the problem of bringing the warhead of a long-range missile down through the atmosphere. To recover a living animal that has been riding in a satellite is in some ways harder, in other ways easier. A satellite has to move faster than an ICBM and therefore must dissipate more energy before it can enter dense low-altitude air without burning up. But it has the advantage of skimming the thin top of the atmosphere instead of plunging into it at a steep angle. Theoretically, it can be made to approach the atmosphere gradually...