https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/e49c9571d59276c94b8d617c91694c82.pdf 4df3d36eef419577880fd85370d99a03 PDF Text Text Document disclosed under the Access to Information^ -*| Document divulgue en vertu de la to/ sur /'acces a Tinformatidh •*f*f, Subject. I&Z \ 4 1969 A Date.. NEW VUKK rtMi- v ./i About 200 early model SS-V ,wartSsail i.zp w?iat it lacks in Russians are interested.in limit- accurate. Its main feature inand SS-8 missiles were retail1*** »ro»r»cy and *hus could be ing damage in the Soviet Union ability to come in low, un&bf Anr-'Tiis. questions the United in the Russian force as ;.*• •rt j.u tiy io ftestroy minute- in case deterrence fails arid nu- the view of long-range radj Suues would raise with the new weapons went in. % -.*• ttr- %-irrtt arms limitationThen, early last year, the man missiles in their steel-and- clear war breaks out. ICBM's thus being potentially capajfj that can destroy enemy missiles of destroying bombers bef'te !»>*.«; j? . ..iderway was: "Why Russians stopped deploying the conrrete silos. would you have a 25-megaton SS-9 and slowed installation of More fhilling yet is the pos- in their silos would limit dam they can be warned and [ge missile?" the SS-11. At the same time it sibility that the Russians would age on Russia fully as much as airborne. Such a weapon would be) A megaton is equivalent to started putting in about 25 SS- put accurately guided multiple antimissile missiles. 13's, a new solid-fuel ICBM warheads on the SS-9. The exone million tons of TNT. little use unless employed in Most Experts Undecided By WILLIAM BEECHER with a warhead of about oneperts say it has enough thrust Since the Administration has SpeetoJ to The New York Times to carry three 4-to-5-megaton Most analysts say the evi first strike. After war hal apparently chosen to pitch megaton. multiple warheads for the SS-9. is not at all clear enough begun, the bombers would no| WASHINGTON, April 13 — much of its case for the missile The feeling was the Russians multiple warheads, or six 1-to- dence The scope and nature of Soviet -As of last fall, the American defense system on the rising thought they had almost as 2-megaton warheads, or con- to choose among these alterna be sitting around on their ba strategic weapons deployment intelligence community was Soviet threat, the differing as- many ICBM's as they needed ceivably 18 200-kiloton war- tive strategies with confidence. waiting to be hit. Mr. Laird, some officials Additionally, the Russians has puzzled senior Government convinced the Russians were sessments within the Adminis- or wanted and would soon heads. The Russians have been ac- point out, has the responsibility have long expressed interest analysts to the point where it merely following the American tration on the nature of that taper off. to make conservative judgments building a large missile demay play an important role in lead in building a secure "sec- threat couid well undermine But in December came evi- tively testing a three-part mul where the country's survival in fense system. So far they have tiple warhead on the SS-9, its case. dence of a sudden resumption the Administration's fight for ond strike" force that would be at stake and thus under- deployed only 67 long-range sources say. But, as yet, these may of SS-9 construction. Only a Pace of Deployment standably wants to move ahead an antiballistic missile system. enable them to ride out a surmissiles were involved but are not belived capable to sepa- now to start the slow deploy- defensive missiles around MosBack in 1965, when the Rus few this raised concern because of rate guidance against different ment of a defense for the cow but are testing a more adThe issue came to light re- prise attack and then retaliate sians moved to a large-scale the large vanced model. payload of this sys-i targets. Instead it is said, they Minuteman force. ' cently when Defense Secretary overwhelmingly. deployment of ICBM's, they tern. land "like a string of beads" in If the Russians installed a The new information, centerMelvin R. Laird asserted there concentrated on two second(The Administration argued heavy defensive all around the a straight line. None Believed Accurate was "no question" that Russia ing on the SS-9, has raised a generation liquid-fuel missiles: There were three main theo- for the Safeguard system, ad- country, this too could cut two was seeking "a first strike ca- serious question in many offi- the SS-9, with a warhead of The question was whether ries on what the Russians are ditionally, as a full protection ways. On the one hand it could from 9 to 25 megatons, and cials' -minds. However, Mr. the Russians had decided to against ICBM's Communist limit damage if someone else pability" against the United to: SS-11, with a warhead of resume the earlier construction upOne China is expected to have in started nuclear war. But it also States. He credited new intel- Laird has apparently resolved the school holds that they slightly more than 25 megapace that would result in a have powerful internal pres the mid-1970's and as a defense could be used lo knock down ligence information with bring- that question to his own satis- tons. total of about 500 SS-9's in five sures to continue construction against a small number of mis- retaliatory American missiles faction in favor of assuming ing him to this view. The pace of deployment was years. of at least some more missiles, siles launched accidently or that survived a Soviet first that th'e Russians are bent on Qualified sources say that approximately 250 a year None of the Soviet ICBM's a sort of Soviet "military-indus- without authorization from strike on the United States. China, Russia or anywhere Administration officials hope the new evidence gathered by upsetting the balance of power about 200 SS-ll's for each 40 is considered very accurate. trial complex." a freeze on offensive and dehigh-flying satellites shows the dramatically in their favor. to 50 SS-9's. At the time, Amer- The one-megaton missiles, how- Another group believes they else.) Others in the Government are ican analysts figured the Rus- ever, are considered quite ade- have derided they ought to build Those who lean to the Soviet fensive missiles can foreclose-= following: sians had simply put their de- quate for destroying cities. a first-strike f"rce, more to ex- first-strike school point to the these horrors. But they quesfar from sure. <3The Soviet Union has a total Secretary Laird's statement velopment and production They are five times more pow- ploit as an frnplicit threat in Russian deployment of the tion whether the United States! of about 1,200 intercontinental was made before a recent ses- money on two different sys- erful than the atomic bombs future conp .rations than to fractional bomb system. It uses can safely start a unilateral ballistic missiles, in place or f«"m made by two separate that destroyed Hiroshima and use sudde/ one morning in a the same booster as the SS-9 freeze even before those long siirpri.se/ *vk rapidly going into place, rough sion of a Senate Foreign Rela- design learns, just as the United Nagasaki. ICBM, but carries a smaller and difficult talks get under But the SS-9 makes up in Atfii*"-nffjup holds that the warhead and is believed less way. ly 150 more land-based ICBM's tions subcommittee that w*«j States had done originally. strongly skeptical about, tnr than in America's arsenal. need for the* $6-billion to $7•"After deploying about 225 billion Safeguard antimissile giant SS-9 missiles the Rus- system, designed in part to desians abruptly stopped the pro- fend American's ICBM's against gram early last year, but then, Soviet attack. in December, surprisingly Without squarely disagreestarted it up again. ing with Mr. Laird's assessflThe Russians are believed ment, Secretary of State Wilto have deployed a fractional liam P. Rogers nonetheless orbiting bombardment system, a weapon that could only be told a news conference rp: usil effectively in a first strike doubted that the Russians haft agUftU so-called "soft" targets, the' "intention" of launching j» first strike. But he said one 4* suck ss bomber bases. tjr«y are also testing new Soutct Missile Deployment Puzzles Top U. S. Analysts ^ ^ X 000272 � Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDBM00219 Title A name given to the resource Transcript from NYT Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 4/14/1969 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived RG25-A-3-c, file 27-11-7, "DEFENCE - CONVENTIONAL AND NUCLEAR ARMAMENTS - ANTI - BALLISTIC MISSILES (ABM) = DEFENSE - ARMEMENTS DE TYPE CLASSIQUE ET NUCLEAIRE - ENGINS ANTIMISSILES (ABM)," vol. 10357, part 6, Library and Archives Canada, (LAC). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource External Affairs Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource Anti-ballistic missiles Description An account of the resource Soviet Missile Deployment Puzzles Top US Analysts Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en