Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1536266
Rapid expansion of the USSR's strategic nuclear forces in the 1970s and 1980s—particularly the increase in accuracy of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) carrying nuclear warheads, the expanding program to harden both the missiles and their launchers (silos) against the effects of a nuclear strike, and the introduction of missiles from the outset designed to attack U.S. command centers and ICBM launch fields (e.g., the R-36, NATO SS-9 Scarp)—caused deep concern in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Despite the rapid development of their own technologies, experts at Strategic Air Command were fully aware of the threats posed by the new generations of Soviet missiles—often single-warhead, high-yield, and increasingly accurate (notably the R-36 and RS- 16A, NATO SS-17 Spanke"). As a result, they launched extensive analyses and field tests aimed at identifying the best basing method for the land-based leg of the American nuclear triad in terms of survivability, availability, and cost. At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, a series of experimental installations for new ICBM basing methods was built on test ranges in New Mexico and Arizona (MRBs down the road). During this period, several dozen novel basing approaches—some seemingly fantastical or impractical, others merely variants of existing schemes—were evaluated. Clearly, ensuring the survivability of the land-based component of the nuclear arsenal was of paramount importance to U.S. scientists and engineers. A report prepared for public release in August 1993 by the U.S. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering lists, beyond the formal evaluation criteria for new ICBM basing methods, nearly thirty different MRB basing concepts under consideration. To aid decision-makers and non-technical readers, the report grouped evaluation criteria into clear graphical tables. Here it is worth explaining why the Americans devoted such attention to new land-based ICBM deployment concepts rather than abandoning them altogether. Land-based MRBs comprised one leg of the so-called nuclear triad, developed by both rival superpowers. This concept called for at least three methods of deploying strategic nuclear weapons: Land-based ICBMs (typically housed in reinforced, underground concrete silos, one missile per silo), Submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) aboard ballistic-missile submarines (colloquially American Concepts for Concealing ICBMs in the 1980s: Part I STORY BY: ALEKSANDER FIEDOREK IMAGES: ADOBE/POWER www.fragoutmag.com