Safeguard Program
The Safeguard Program was a
Safeguard was the ultimate development of an ever-changing series of designs produced by
The debate about ABM protection of US ICBMs had been going on for over a decade when Safeguard was announced, and the arguments against such a system were well known both in the military and civilian circles. In military circles, the most basic argument against Safeguard was that adding an ABM requires the Soviets to build another ICBM to counter it, but the same is true if the US builds another ICBM instead. The Air Force was far more interested in building more of their own ICBMs than Army ABMs, and lobbied against the Army continually. In the public sphere, opinion by the late 1960s was anti-military in general, and in an era of ongoing Strategic Arms Limitation Talks the entire concept was derided as sabre rattling. Safeguard had been developed to calm opposition but found itself just as heavily opposed. Nixon pressed ahead in spite of objections and complaints about limited performance, and the reasons for his strong support remains a subject of debate among historians and political commentators.
Through the Safeguard era, talks between the US and Soviet Union originally started by President Lyndon B. Johnson were continuing. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 limited the US and Soviet Union to two ABM sites each. Safeguard was scaled back to sites in North Dakota and Montana, abandoning initial work at a site in Missouri, and cancelling all other planned bases. Construction on the two remaining bases continued until 1974, when an additional agreement limited both countries to a single ABM site. The Montana site was abandoned with the main radar partially completed. The remaining base in North Dakota, the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex, became active on 1 April 1975 and fully operational on 1 October 1975. By that time the House Appropriations Committee had already voted to deactivate it.[3] The base was shut down on 10 February 1976.
History
Nike Zeus
An anti-ICBM defensive ABM system was first considered by the US Army in 1955 under the name Nike II. This was essentially an upgraded version of their
Through the late 1950s a new generation of much lighter
Nike-X
Faced with these problems, both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations turned to the newly created ARPA to suggest solutions. ARPA noted that because the decoys were lighter than the actual warhead, they would slow down more rapidly as they reentered the lower atmosphere. They proposed a system using a short range missile that could wait until the warhead was below 100,000 feet (30 km) altitude, at which point the decoys would have been decluttered. Desiring to destroy the missile before it was below 20,000 feet (6.1 km) altitude, combined with the 5 miles (8.0 km) per second terminal speed of the RV meant there were only 2 to 3 seconds to develop a track and shoot the interceptor. This would demand extremely fast missiles, high-performance radars and advanced computers.[citation needed]
In 1963,
The Nike-X developed the same sort of trouble as the Zeus before it. In this case it was ironically due to the Soviet's own ABM system which was very similar to Zeus. To ensure they could defeat it, the
When the same calculations were run for Nike-X, it was calculated that they would have to deploy 7,000
Sentinel
In spite of all of these problems, which McNamara repeatedly made public in a series of talks, the Johnson administration was under intense pressure to deploy an ABM system. In 1966 Congress voted to provide deployment funding for Nike-X, although McNamara refused to use it. As the 1967 elections approached, it became clear that this was going to be a major election issue. McNamara proposed arms limitations talks with the Soviets to put upper limits on the numbers of ABMs and warheads, but the Glassboro Summit Conference ultimately came to nothing.[citation needed]
By late 1967 it was clear the Soviets were not seriously considering limitations, and were continuing deployment of their own ABM system. In September, the Chinese tested their first
Nixon, having campaigned that the Democrats were deliberately dragging their feet on the ABM, inherited the system with his election win. He also inherited a massive NIMBY backlash that blew up in late 1968 when the Army chose to deploy the missiles in suburban locations to allow future expansion to be easier. City-dwellers could tolerate the idea of an armed rocket attack against bombers going on over their heads. They were less comfortable with the concept of nuclear anti-missiles detonating against incoming missiles at low altitudes.[citation needed]
The issue came to a head at a meeting outside Boston, when an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 people showed up to express their displeasure in spite of a raging blizzard. Congressmen were flooded by letters from constituents demanding the sites be moved, and Congress was soon threatening to freeze all additional funds for the system. Nixon announced construction would be delayed while the system underwent a review.[citation needed]
Safeguard
The review was completed on 14 March 1969 and announced in a lengthy speech made by Nixon and various DoD advisers. The entire concept was reviewed and all possibilities considered fresh. Among these, the idea of a heavyweight Nike-X-like system was considered, but Defense Secretary Melvin Laird apparently came to the same conclusion as McNamara before him, stating that the protection the system offered simply didn't justify the cost;
When you are looking toward city defense, it needs to be a perfect or near perfect system because, as I examined the possibility of even a thick defense of cities, I have found that even the most optimistic projections, considering the highest development of the art, would mean that we would still lose 30 million to 40 million lives...[4]
However, they disagreed with the concept of a light city defense as well. There was no reason to deploy a system that only worked under contrived circumstances, especially as accepting them as possibilities meant that the enemy was ignoring your deterrent. If that was the case, why have missiles at all? The real issue becomes ensuring they cannot ignore your deterrent, and it was this concept that Nixon chose. Instead of deploying the ABM system to protect cities, the new deployment would protect the missile bases themselves, ensuring that no limited attack could be contemplated. This did not have to be perfect, or even close to it;
When you are talking about protecting your deterrent, it need not be perfect. It is necessary only to protect enough of the deterrent that the retaliatory second strike will be of such magnitude that the enemy would think twice about launching a first strike.[4]
Operation
Safeguard was a two-layer defense system. The long-range
The envisioned sequence was as follows:[citation needed]
- Enemy launch detected by Defense Support Program satellites, sensing the hot infrared exhaust of the ICBM booster.
- While in the mid-course phase, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radars in the far north would detect the incoming warheads.
- As the warheads approached (but while still in outer space) the Safeguard long-range Perimeter Acquisition Radar (PAR) would detect them, providing filtered information to the shorter-range and more precise Missile Site Radar (MSR).
- While the incoming warhead came within range of the MSR, the associated computer systems would calculate intercept trajectories and launch times.
Original deployment plan
Plans were made in the late 1960s to deploy Safeguard systems in three locations, Whiteman AFB, Missouri, Malmstrom AFB, Montana, and Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, to protect important strategic weapons assets. However the Whiteman AFB location was canceled despite the fact that specific missile and radar site locations had already been selected. Construction was actually commenced at the North Dakota and Montana sites, but only the North Dakota site was completed. Remnants of the incomplete PAR system still remain in rural Montana.[6]
Components
The Safeguard system consisted of several primary components, the Perimeter Acquisition Radar, the Missile Site Radar, the Spartan missile launchers, co-located Sprint missile launchers, and Remote Sprint missile launchers.[citation needed]
Perimeter Acquisition Radar (PAR)
The PAR was a large
Remnants of the Montana PAR site are located east of Conrad, Montana, at 48°17′15.83″N 111°20′32.39″W / 48.2877306°N 111.3423306°W.
Missile Site Radar (MSR)
The Missile Site Radar was the control of the Safeguard system. It housed the computers and a phased array radar necessary to track and hit back at incoming ICBM warheads. The radar building itself is a pyramid structure several stories tall. Construction was begun in both Montana and North Dakota, but only the North Dakota site remains standing. The MSR complex included 30 Spartan missile launchers and 16 Sprint missile launchers.[8]
Remnants of the Montana MSR site 48°08′18″N 111°45′41″W / 48.13831°N 111.76152°W were dismantled and buried.[9]
Remote Sprint Launchers (RSL)
Remote Sprint Launchers were established around the MSR main complex in order to place missile launchers closer to their intended targets, and thus reduce the flight range to the targets. Four sites were completed, and they still remain there, 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km) around the MSR complex in Nekoma, North Dakota.[10]
- RSL-1 48°32′00″N 98°34′59″W / 48.53335°N 98.58304°W
- RSL-2 48°50′58″N 98°25′56″W / 48.84943°N 98.43217°W
- RSL-3 48°45′52″N 97°59′10″W / 48.76455°N 97.98602°W on the National Register of Historic Places, museum
- RSL-4 48°28′31″N 98°15′22″W / 48.47525°N 98.25612°W
Photo gallery
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In May 1969, the US Army Institute of Heraldry approved this shoulder sleeve insignia for Safeguard.
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Safeguard Missile Site Radar
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Missile Site Radar Complex sign
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The Missile Site Radar overlooks missile launchers at the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard complex in Nekoma, North Dakota.
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Aerial image of Remote Sprint Launch Site No. 2.
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The LIM-49 Spartan missile was intended to intercept warheads above the earth's atmosphere
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A Sprint missile being loaded for test firing at White Sands Missile Range, 1967.
Footnotes
- ^ "Safeguard Data-Processing System". The Bell System Technical Journal. 1975.
Western Electric was the prime contractor for the Safeguard system and Bell Laboratories was responsible for the design
- ^ Lester W. Grau; Jacob W. Kipp (1 July 2002). "Maintaining Friendly Skies: Rediscovering Theater Aerospace Defense". Aerospace Power.
Although it was never fielded, it evolved into the Spartan missile.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ John W. Finney (25 November 1975). "Safeguard ABM System to Shut Down". New York Times.
the utility of Safeguard to protect Minuteman will be essentially nullified in the future
- ^ a b Nixon 1969, p. 211.
- ^ "List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons".
- ^ Novak, David. "Safeguard Montana Complex (Malmstrom AFB)". srmsc.org. Retrieved 19 November 2016. Nb: Includes photos and cites James H. Kitchens, "A History of the Huntsville Division (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)", q.v.
- ^ Cavalier AFS renamed as U.S. Space Force installation
- ^ "SRMSC Reunion - MSR site large map". Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ "SRMSC Reunion - Montana MSR Trip Report". Retrieved December 25, 2021.
- ^ "SRMSC Reunion - RSL Tour Guide". Retrieved December 25, 2021.
See also
- Sharpner's Pond Anti-Ballistic Missile Site, an incomplete radar for the Sentinel program
- Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), successor to Safeguard
- Comparison of anti-ballistic missile systems
External links
- Unofficial website of the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard complex
- FAS - Safeguard system
- Global Security - Malstrom ABM site
- The MSR is listed in the Historic American Engineering Record, survey ND-9-B.
- The PAR site is listed in the Historic American Engineering Record, survey ND-9-P.