https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/d439117bae8ec0d9925a879070bc4805.pdf 6e0884c7ed5dd4ca52e0b568f90991ea PDF Text Text Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur Tacces a Tinformation EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Mr. Bow TO FROM De AFFAIRES EXTERIEURES SECURITY SSairiU G.J. Smith RESTRICTED A p r i l 30, 1969. DATE NUMBER Numero REFERENCE Reference DOSSIER PILE SUBJECT Sujet Anti-Ballistic Missiles OTTAWA 27- 11-7 MISSION b~ ENCLOSURES Annexe* DISTRIBUTION Mr. Bernier 0/PMA Last evening the CBS television network presented a programme entitled "CBS Reports the ABM". The programme, which was an excellent review of the ABM debate in the United States, discussed three significant items which may be new information to us. 2, The first point was that the Spartan component of the "Safeguard" system could not be used if an aggressor launched a missile attack against the U.S. using a decoy system. As it was explained, radar would not distinguish between the decoys and the actual weapon until they entered the atmosphere at which time the weapon-carrying device would begin to outrace the decoy and thus become identifiable, Spartan missiles would thus be unable to intercept them because of the reduced time factor and, with their larger warhead, they are designed to intercept outside of the atmosphere. The system would thus have to rely on the Sprint component to make the interception. Secondly, and the most important piece of informa3. , was that the planned deployment of Sprint missiles_in tion North Dakota and Montana could not protect all of the 350 ICBM's located at these two bases. As one Army officer located at the base explained, the ICBM's are deployed in squadrons of 10 with each squadron and each missile within a squadron being located so far apart from each other that it would almost be impossible for one incoming missile to destroy more than one minuteman. There would thus have to be as many or more sprints than minutemen in order to provide adequate, but not foolproof, protection to them. This would not be the case under the present deployment plan, costing approximately 4 billion dollars. As a matter of fact, it was pointed out that no more than half of the minutemen in these two areas could be protected. If full coverage for the 350 ICBM's were provided, the cost involved would triple. *• *£ 000228 Ext. 407A/Bil. �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgue en vertu de la Loi sur Tacces a Tinformation ... - . 4. As you know, we have tended to discount the publicized reasons for the deployment of "safeguards" and have attributed its raison d'etre to the internal needs of the military-industrial complex. Our understanding of the situation was substantiated to some degree by Mr. York, the predecessor of John Foster as the Pentagon's top technical expert, who was of the opinion that inter-service rivalry was at the root of the problem. He pointed out that in the late 1950Ts all three arms of the military service were clamouring for the allocations that were being set aside for the development of missiles. In a compromise move, the Navy was given the Polaris, the Air Force the Minutemen, and the Army the first form of ABM's, the Nike X or Nike Zeus. When Nike failed, the Army was faced with the dilemma of giving up its share of the missile market or attempting to produce another type of ABM; thus the Spartan-Sprint system and the pressure from the Army elements within the Pentagon to proceed with its deployment. This argument, it seems to me, has a lot of merit. xADV—-1 hyU~ G.J. Smith 000229 � 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 CDBM00240 Title A name given to the resource Smith to Bow (External Affairs) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 4/30/1969 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 ABMs 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