LEXICON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00049R000802060042-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 15, 2007
• Sequence Number: 42
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

xlcproved For Release 2007/03/16: CIA-RDP84BOO049ROO0802060042-5
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. Within the next few weeks, Presi-
dent Reagan will announce what sort
of base he prefers for the proposed
fleet of 100 MX intercontinental mis-
siles.
The current betting is that' he will
recommend "closely spaced basing "
e
?
get.
Scenario Dependent - Theories or
ideas, the validity of which depend on
scenArios or assumptions of a chain of
events. .
known in the Pentagon as C.S.B., and
among many journalists and politi-
cians as "dense pack." This system
would involve placing all 100 MX mis-
siles,. advanced intercontinental
weapons with 10 warheads each; in
one field of slightly less than 15 square'
miles, with silos about 600 yards
apart.
But whatever system the. President
recommends, the debate over MX is
not likely,to end soon. For those who
wish to follow the argument, or
merely ponder the nuclear jargon that
has grown up around it, the following
lossa ma be useful :
Fratricide - A phenomenon in
which, it is expected, the earliest ex-
plosions of enemy nuclear warheads
in a closely spaced MX base will de-
stroy or deflect warheads that follow,
thus permitting most of the MX fleet
to survive. Like most, such theories,
this has never been empirically test-
ed.
Ca Xule -- The Air Force prefers to
silos capsules because of a
fear that the Soviet Union will com-
plain that building new intercontinen-
tal ballistic missile silos constitutes
the construction of new missile
launchers, which is forbidden by the
second treaty on strategic arms limi-
tation, SALT 2.
Launcher - For reasons of diplo-
matic am iguity, no clear definition
of this key term has ever been agreed
upon. The second arms limitation
treaty, which was signed in 1979, says
in Article 2 that "intercontinental
ballistic missile launchers are land-
based launchers of ballistic missiles.".
The "First Agreed Statement" of the
treaty says that this "includes all
launchers which have been developed
and tested for launching ICBM's."
This, one nuclear theologian re-
marked, is "tautological," saying lit-
tle more than a launcher is a launcher.
The assumption in 1979 was that silos
were launchers, but this assumption is
no longer convenient to nuclear
hawks.
R.V. - Re-entry vehicle, the cone-
shaped, heat-shielded object that
carries the nuclear warhead, often
called the physics package, to thetar-?
Full Spike - A war scenario in
which oviet military planners would
attack the densely packed MX field
with a salvo in which at least one R.V.
would be directed at each capsule for
? detonation as nearly simultaneous as
possible.
Cfln, r A Aff-1, ,,I-1. Dinet..m.n
while the American MX's were im-
mobilized in their capsules by pin-
e enemy would fire perhaps 11
R.V.'s at a time, spaced to detonate
far enough apart to avoid fratricide,
, P pie - A scenario w ch
ptogs by Cbarlea waver
tant when there were plans tor mov-
ing MX missiles among a large num-
ber of protective shelters in a "shell
game" or "race track." In a simple
densely packed MX field, P.L.U. Is a
moot question.. However, in the future
the United St Ate* may wish to add De-
ceptive Basing to the MX field by add-
ing extra capsules among which the
100 missiles could be moved. In that
case it will be most desireable to pre-
serve location uncertainty.
Launch on Warning, or Launch
Under Attack - If confidence in the
workability of dense pack or other de-
fenses erodes, some thinkers have dis-
cussed firing United States missiles
before incoming enemy missiles
strike the capsules. One fear, among
many, about L:O.W. or L.U.A. Is that
an enemy might first knock out the
space satellites that carry sensors,
which are designed. to give the warn-
ing that Soviet missiles have been
launched. Such an event is sometimes
described as Warning by Loss of
Warning.
Dust Defense - A theoretical de-
tense of a missile field in which the
United States would bury some nu-
clear warheads in a missile field and
north of it and detonate them when
sensors gave notice that enemy war-
heads were incoming. The columns of
dirt, dust and debris raised by these
explosions might destroy or deflect
the enemy R.V.'s. It is widely as-
sumed, however, that Congress and
the President might be reluctant to
embrace a defense that involved the
deliberate detonation of American
thermonuclear devices on American
soil. A Pentagon document recently
conceded that a problem with some
nuclear plans, such as dust defense,
were that they maybe:
Counter Intuitive - The Pentagon
paper did not define counter intuitive.
However, insiders say the phrase
means that to ordinary folks the Idea
sounds crazy.
achieve simultaneous explosion of in-
coming R.V.'s. One such possibility
would be to slow the high re-entry
speeds of R.V.'s (as much as 23,000
feet per second, or almost 10 times the
speed of a rifle bullet) with para-
chutes or retro rockets so that all the
incoming R.V.'s landed gently on the
field and could be exploded simulta-
neously by remote control.
Deep Penetrator, or Earth Penetra-
tor - And. at would be con-
ted so as to be able to plunge
deep Into the earth without exploding
(or being destroyed by the high
energy of impact) until other penetra-
tors had done the same and all could
be exploded.
P.L.U. - "Preservation of location
uncin y. F.L.U. was very impor-
Pindown - An untested but appar-
ently plausible nuclear tactic in which
one side would explode a timed series
of nuclear warheads at very high alti-
tudes above a missile field. Because
e "boost stages" or rocket portions
o1 missiles attempting to fly out
through the pindown woud probably
be destroyed by X-ray energy, the
President would have to delay launch-
ing United States ICBM's until the pin-
down ended.
Soft La down - One way for an at-
c er to defeat fratricide would be to
Charles Mohr