SOVIET INCREASES BUILD-UP OF MISSILES AND DEP[ ]A DEFENSIVE SYSTEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080020-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 10, 2006
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: November 13, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

I
52 B, =Ci1zr- (propellant rather than a solidlif they are assaulted first by
Like the Min-I the United States, they can
to The dew York z nos 'fuel propellant. 11 ilNGTON, Nov. 12 -luteman I, it is believed tolturn America into a nuclear
ion to deploying a misJcarry a one megaton warhead.
s rsday that the So-
, i r. was constructing
T.>s,te missiles. But he did
nisclose the even more
rtli.,g intelligence on. strafe-, As recently as May of this
:trees that is stirring - a year, unnamed "United States
;roux debate within t;he Gov-
~_,; ..- ns ,officials" put out information
several years tie Plus-1subg""'b _.. u,u es . y ...,... .z...~.-
s i eve e n addirig onlyipossessed about 300 ICBM's inlica's missile capability with a
ut .,0 to 50 intercontinertallau. At present, it is under- first strike, and intercept most
missiles a year to theiristood, the number actually falls remaining retaliatory missiles,
i< -send Phis rate hasisomewhere between 400 and particularly the Polaris mis-
increased, reliable sourcesl'~30? One reason for the dis- siles, with their new antimis-
iy, to rouniy 100 or more ajpar'ity may be an understand- sile defense.
Lr over the last two years. able difference of opinion to
I, vhGn ussian missiles become Secret Devices Sat
rn, Not Alarm fully operational and thus must The Administration has not
is combination of increased DC counted. been unaware of this potential
Jymert of offensive and de-' In addition, the Russians are
live missile systems is rais- believed to have about 120 to
considerable concern, though 150 submarine-launched mis-
alarm, in high Adrninistra-Isiles and about 750 medium
on circles. and intermediate range mis-
nformed officials do not be-
fie ve that Russia's burst of ac-
.ivity currently endangers the
::ccurity of the United States.
A few, in fact, suggest that
{ flu: nature of the system now
,noting up underscores the de-
ca c-mindedness of the Soviet
1a;iciership and could herald a
Period of greater stability be-
Ti_, ir.:e, however, some of-
i is note, the Russians are
:oaucing and deploying large
annbers of advanced missiles
:'nd are both, dispersing them
tiidely over the Soviet Union
iTd hardei# them against
;possible att
Two kind
single-stag; Y~ sile simi-
lar to the, ~ of the
Minutemat- it is
powered by a eon_pIe liquid
Approved For Release 2006/11/11: CIA-RDP70B00338RO 00080020-5
"HE NEW `Y'O'__ TI`':aES, SUNDAY, NOV e. 13, i9 6.
01.
7 y en
~. .`~ .1 d
k
race, officials point out, t
neither is likely to initiate nu- t.h. .......... .
clear war, the argument goes. But with the proliferation
Up to this point in the argu-,missiles in both countries, n
roughly comparable to Amer-,of views comes when they looklprobably increase for an ac
may carry an even bigger war-I If the Russians continue to J in of a few missiles by eit
head, ranging from 30 to 60 turn out more and more mis- side.
megatons, sources say. I siles, the pessimists say, they It is partly with this in in
a reporter asked Mr.
Namara whether the Soviet
meant "that the Russians
have the capability to k
down American ballistic
siles but we do not?"
"Certainly not . . . the
solutely no question about our
capability of penetrating the
Soviet defenses with both our
By comparison, the United I through to their targets.
States has a comfortable lead) Many of these devices can
in numbers. Already deployedibe fitted onto existing land-
are 800 Minutemen I missiles
and 130 improved Minuteman
II missiles, with 70 more Min-
utemen scheduled to be de-
ployed to achieve a total force
i,wren the two nuclear super-,of 1,000. There are also 54 of
flowers. the lamer Titan II's. So far, 38
Sit other equally well in- of 41 Polaris submarines have
armed strategists, including been put into service; each
-,Li: military and civilian offi- carries 16 Polaris missiles. Po-
privately express appre- laris missiles are believed to
__,t1 lion that, should the ICBM carry a warhead slightly under
:;Wino continue for very long one megaton in yield.
:.L its present pace, the uneasy But comparative statistics
o nations could be upset.
The worriers are not unmind-
T i of the missile' gap. _ con-
roversy in 'the late 1950's when
me officials forecast a Soviet
fissile buildup on the basis of
what Russia was capable of
turning out; but during that
eriod the Soviet ? Union de-
i~ided not to go into mass pro-
:action, while the United States
;rt into a crash program, and
resulting missile gap
or ly favored the American
-secs
,,`Uji?tent ;Seen
it has spent well above $1 bil missiles and aircraft."
lion developing a variety of Interception Capability
cret penetration devices de
vices designed to jam or fool But while this may have an-
New Bomber Proposed
And as one final hedge
against the possible effective-
ness of a Soviet antimissile de-
fense, Mr. McNamara is report-
ed to be looking with more in-
terest than heretofore at an Air
silos, the latter being trainedian enemy missile defense solswered part of the question it
on targets in Western Europe.It`tat attacking missiles can getifailed to answer it fully. Once
'th th Sitiile defense be? I:
eeove mss comes operational, the Russians
doubtless will have the capa-li'
bilits of intercepting some
.
udocu a..
And Mr. McNamara announced American missiles, while the,
Thursday the likelihood that United States has no defense
the Administration would ask whatever against enemy mis-
Congress next year for money silos, other than on blueprints.
for the replacement of Polaris In the past, Mr. McNamara
missiles with Poseidon missiles, has opposed a full-scale deploy-
which can carry twice as much ment of the Nike X system,
payload and therefore much which would cost more than
more penetration equipment. $20-billion, because of studies
Beyond that, the Administra- that show the Russians could
Lion is studying the possibility still penetrate enough missiles
-of building a new generation of in an all-out attack to kill tens
muc is Tartar lanri_ha~se iniac;lac.(of millions of Americans.
Much depends 'on the kinds of bility missile. This, too, would teresting a proposal to deploy a
missiles each side has and possess enough thrust to carry lighter version of Nike X, with
their respective capabilitiesa vastly larger'aayload of pone-,a cost of from $3-billion to $8-I%
against different types Of:teation aids and advanced types billion, to guard against the.=
targets.- ' of warheads. smaller, less sophisticated
ll
Second-strike Force Earlier this month the Pen- threat the Chinese Communists
For example, officials say tagon commissioned the Insti. will be able to mount in the
Lute for Defense Analysts to future. Early deployment, he s
that the bulk of the new mi - conduct a special nine-month told Congress this year, might i
siles being deployed by the Rus- Ludy of the ICM and various even force the Chinese to re-
signs 'are small and not very basing concepis for it. The consider their plans to build an
accurate, and thus best able to study group will be headed by ea-pensive ICBM arsenal. ~a
attack "soft" . targets, like Fred A. Payne, a highly regard-I But since the Chinese are not
cities rathe4 than "hardened" ed former Pentagon researehjexpected to have many ICBM's1
missile launching sites. specialist currently on leave
In a situation where United from his job with the Mar-
States missile forces could ab- quardt Corporation.
sorb a first strike and still de
stroy most of Russia's cities in
retaliation, some strategists
point out, Soviet leaders are
not about to build up a big
force to kill American cities in
an all-out surprise attack be-
cause this would virtually guar-
antee national suicide for the
Russians. istic bomber. Such a bomberldeployment of Nike X for some',:
Rather these men insist the would carry large numbers of i time. The final decision, of i?
,,missiles to be used against air-to-ground missiles desinedlcourse, will be made by the';
cities are probably meant to,to blast past defensees and get'President.
provide the Russians with theirlthe bomber to its targets. Some Pentagon officials now;:
own second-strike force so than Finally, if the Russian.; do talk about the prospect of al's
until about 1975, and since Nike
X could be deployed in about;'! six or seven years, Mr. Mc-
Namara tends to believe thatli
there is still time to deploy
against that threat in a couple }
of years, according to some of-
Decision By President
The Joint Chiefs of Staff iZ
have been unanimously urging;.
Approved For Release 2006/11/11: CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080020-5
/ _ ~- 'ski
1VSt ? e o O...YCv~/A.i:
down with Congress Ifully aware of the details of the
over a broad ran 'J'tioviet moves, it is expected to
wer, Kennedy andlissues.
ministrations Con-~ Senator Henry M. Jackson,
eon much more ?.I:\?vhose position as chairman of
spend money an the Military Applications sub,
o the Vietnamu a makes him privy to some of the
again this tea' deepest secrets of strategic in-
ted its trad ?nxl telligence, served notice of his
a better nspi own crowing concern in a cc-
by approp CA cent Senate speech.
2-million more` than "We can no longer be as-
will narrow the gap materially
.
if we do not do everything .
in support of our own nuclear
weapons capability." j