IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/joupea/v14y1977i1p23-40.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Counterforce Potential of American SLBM Systems

Author

Listed:
  • Desmond J. Ball

    (Strategic and Defence Studies Centre Australian National University)

Abstract

SLBM systems have traditionally been seen as counter-value weapons systems, ideally suited to the support of mutual assured destruction and hence of greater international stability.It is the primary contention of this paper that several quite discrete developments are pro viding SLBM systems with a potential, at least under some circumstances, for significant counterforce strategic operations. These developments are partly technical (a combination of improved ballistic missile inertial guidance systems, MIRVing, and increases in the naviga tional accuracy of the FBM submarines), partly strategic, and partly bureaucratic-political.These developments necessitate a re-thinking of much of the conventional wisdom on the role of SLBM systems in the American strategic nuclear posture, and of the implications of these systems for arms control.

Suggested Citation

  • Desmond J. Ball, 1977. "The Counterforce Potential of American SLBM Systems," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 14(1), pages 23-40, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:joupea:v:14:y:1977:i:1:p:23-40
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/14/1/23.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:joupea:v:14:y:1977:i:1:p:23-40. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.prio.no/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.