Word: spartanism
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Like McNamara and others, Bethe has long doubted that any defense system can effectively discriminate between real warheads and a variety of decoys and "penetration aids" that the offense is likely to use. Spartan, operating in space, faces a handicap in this area because it is only after the real birds
Army planners took the probability of Chinese technological improvement into consideration. Sentinel's original configuration put Spartan and MSR sites close to population centers with the idea of thickening the defenses later by adding Sprints, which must be near the points they defend. To move the installations away from densely populated areas would reduce the popular and political opposition to Sentinel, but would also deprive the major cities of the second line of defense that Sprint represents...
...SPARTAN: the big-punch, long-range missile in the overall anti-missile defense system called Sentinel. Spartan would be installed at most of the ABM sites as the first line of defense, its mission being to intercept attacking RVs (reentry vehicles, or warheads) while they are still above the atmosphere, hundreds of miles from their targets. Spartan performs a regional, or "area-defense," role...
SPRINT: the short-range partner of Spartan, to be emplaced at some of the sites. Its mission is to attack enemy warheads that have eluded Spartan. Sprint protects a specific locality-a radar installation or offensive-missile complex-and thus functions as "point defense...
SABMIS (seabased ABM Spartan-or Sprint-type weapons): a concept, now in an early phase of study, that involves mounting defensive missiles on surface vessels so as to intercept enemy warheads before the landbased defensive system could reach them. Among its advantages is the possibility of destroying an enemy missile before it could scatter a number of separate warheads and decoys...