The MX ICBM and National Security
Gray, Colin S.
THE MX ICBM AND NATIONAL SECURITY Colin S. Gray / Praeger Publishers / $22.95 Terry O'Rourke As the seemingly interminable debate over the MX missile system continues, Colin S. Gray of the Hudson...
...The MX missile-multiple protective structures (MX/MPS) system has been proposed as a solution to the problem of land-based missile vulnerability...
...Gray's primary concerns are the need for: 1) a survivable land-based missile force...
...Tracing the course of recent shifts in the strategic balance, Gray notes that the "United States lost (or more accurately surrendered) strategic superiority at the end of the 1960s, embraced the concept of parity- variously and vaguely expressed as 'sufficiency,' 'realistic deterrence,' 'essential equivalence'-as the guiding light of the 1970s, and now, at the beginning of the 1980s, has already entered a period that could, optimistically, be described as one of tolerable (?) inferiority...
...2) nuclear war-fighting and damage-limiting capabilities...
...strategic forces which would make it impossible for the Soviets "to devise plausible-looking plans for victory in a central nuclear war...
...Such adaptations would include "backfilling" the system to 9200 (or more) shelters, deployment of the LoADS ballistic missile defense system, and, after 1990, deployment of an exo-atmospheric ballistic missile defense system...
...Further, he believes that if the United States is determined to compete effectively, the proposed system can be augmented to meet any expanded threat that may arise from increased numbers of Soviet warheads...
...Unlike many studies of the MX-both pro and con-Gray's work reflects a coherent appreciation of the wide range of strategic issues that will affect national security in the years ahead...
...and 3) authentic strategic stability imposed by strengthened U.S...
...For a number of strategic reasons-applicable to any variant of a survivable, operationally sound, and expandable land-based MX/MPS system that may ultimately be adopted-Gray believes that it is worth the price...
...Each MX missile is designed to carry ten highly accurate warheads, as opposed to the three warheads of the Minuteman III missile...
...Gray's analysis focuses on the final Carter administration system design (as inherited by the Reagan administration), providing for 200 missiles housed deceptively among 4600 shelters in such a manner as to permit a fairly rapid shuffle of the system as a whole during times of heightened tension...
...Gray believes that the MX/MPS system design inherited by the Reagan administration is operationally sound...
...Echoing the concerns of a penitent Henry Kissinger (speaking in 1979), Gray agrees that the vulnerability of the Minuteman force to Soviet attack is of greater consequence to the United States {continued on page 41...
...The starting point of any discussion of the MX missile is the almost total vulnerability of the U.S...
...silo-housed Minuteman missile force to a Soviet first strike...
...Obviously, the MX/MPS system, including any necessary future expansions and defenses, will bear a heavy cost, both in dollars and long-term political commitment...
...as a result of increasing Soviet warhead accuracy, virtually no one disputes that the threat to the Minuteman system is real and imminent...
...THE MX ICBM AND NATIONAL SECURITY Colin S. Gray / Praeger Publishers / $22.95 Terry O'Rourke As the seemingly interminable debate over the MX missile system continues, Colin S. Gray of the Hudson Institute has contributed an acute and cogent analysis of the case for the MX missile...
Vol. 14 • November 1981 • No. 11
