The other point of view, held by those who believe that “ the strongest offense is the best defense,” is that it is dangerous to pin too much hope on the premise that an effective ICBM defense system, covering the entire US, will ever become operational and economically practicable Furthermore, say those who hold this point of view, although ICBM defense R&D programs should definitely be pursued, these also are lagging, along with defense R&D programs in general. Simultaneously, research work on an ICBM defense system is apparently going forward, in the hope that even this seemingly impossible task will become “do-able” in the light of new discoveries.Īn ICBM defense, if providentially it turned up in time, would help counter any adverse reaction accompanying public disclosure, e.g., by the Soviets themselves, that the USSR is ahead of us with the ICBM should this be so. The Administration is working hard to make up for lost time and, hopefully, to win the ICBM race. The first is that of the present Administration, which has been charged with letting our ICBM program lag in a bureaucratic maze in Washington. The ICBM defense problem is being discussed prim from two points of view. The current race between the United States and the Soviet Union for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile has focused new attention on these three component parts of the defense problem, as they pertain to the possibility of stopping an ICBM attack against this country. The age-old problem of defense consists of: detection, interception, and kill.

Icbm missile commander