The "Anti-Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile" Effort: An Analysis of a Close Encounter with Bureaucratic Politics

Abstract

This case study briefly recounts the Air Force's successful campaign to derail the perceived threat to its organizational raison d'etre posed by (Army owned and operated) Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missiles (ATBMs) and the Tactical Ballistic Missiles (TBMs) that ATBMs are designed to counter. From the Fall of 1986 until the Summer of 1989, the author was a witness/protagonist in a power struggle among the Air Force, Army, USEUCOM, JCS, OSD, NATO, and key U.S. allies over the implications of ATBMs end TBMs in the European theater. The meteoric rise/demise of the NATO ATBN project is a classic example of bureaucratic politics at work in the domestic/international "military-industrial complex," and it provides useful insights into players, positions, and processes in European defense politics.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 15, 1989
Accession Number
ADA437123

Entities

People

  • Chet Herbst

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Defense
  • Air Defense
  • Air Force
  • Anti-Ballistic Missiles
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Countermeasures
  • Defense Systems
  • Europe
  • Military Science
  • Radar
  • Short Range Ballistic Missiles
  • Tactical Ballistic Missiles
  • Task Forces
  • Theater Ballistic Missiles
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • International Relations and European Studies
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Missile Defense Systems.