Interaction of Strategic Defenses with Crisis Stability: Part III. Summary and Conclusions.

Abstract

Retaliatory deterrence is now carried primarily by SLBMs. START would shift that towards aircraft. Moderate defenses would shift retaliation strongly towards aircraft. Combined boost- and midcourse defenses would increase stability. Mutual reductions of heavy ICBMs have little impact in the absence of defenses. It appears preferable to defend current missiles in place. Unilateral deployments of defense leave crisis indices unchanged while reducing the number of weapons delivered. One-sided reductions in conjunction with defenses produce intermediate indices. Interactive reduction of defense suppression could reduce penetration to marginal levels. Coupling between second strike and target set could be resolved by altering objectives or the target set.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA344712

Entities

People

  • Bo West
  • Gregory H. Canavan

Organizations

  • Los Alamos National Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Defense
  • Aircrafts
  • Arms Control
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Boost Phase
  • Cruise Missiles
  • Defense Suppression
  • Deployment
  • Deterrence
  • Governments
  • Midcourse Defense
  • Motivation
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Survival
  • United States
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Missile Defense Systems.
  • Regression Analysis.
  • Strategic Security Studies