Talk:Launch on warning
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Can someone provide references for some of this information. Such as that no countries have "launch on warning" systems employed, and the current situation regarding anti-ballistic missile systems. Kernow 00:01, 16 September 2006 (UTC)
I don't know anything about this, but even if an attacking nation can disrupt another's ability to launch a ground-based retaliation with low-trajectory launches, doesn't the attacked nation still have the ability to retaliate immediately from subs?
There was a comprehensive article in Scientific American in the 1980s on this subject, that went into considerable detail It explained the positive and negative control mechanisms for Minuteman missles, and the problems of launch on warning. It gave a detailed time line of a hypothetical multiphased Soviet attack that included some initial SLBMs with exoatmospheric bursts to partially degrade ground based C3I systems, some depressed trajectory SLBMs to knock out soft target bomber bases, and a steady barrage of depressed trajectory SLBMs with high altitude bursts to create X-ray pindown on US Minuteman missile fields, to allow more time for more accurate ICBMs to arrive at targeted US silos. It took into account the time required to confirm the attack from IR launch plume detection from satelites and BMEWS radar, and the time required for completion of launch procedures for US missiles. It all added up to a strong case for the practical infeasibility of a workable launch on warning policy that could recover from false alarms and still be effective during a real attack. It made the case for relying instead on survivable basing modes such as submarines to ride out the attack and retaliate afterward. Unfortunately, I'm not sure of the name or authorship of the Scientific American article, but I used it as required reading for my students in a military policy class I taught in the mid-1980s. I think it may have been called "Launch under attack". I tried Googling for it recently, but that was before Scientific American kept their articles online. If I recover the article from a closet somewhere, I will add a citation. prz 09:27, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
