SMALL SUBS COULD SERVE AS MX MISSILE LAUNCH SITES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400350052-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2004
• Sequence Number: 52
• Publication Date: October 12, 1979
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

'iCL~ Lrovs For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-0131580004003550052-Q S.-
v ,?.1G~' ~- THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
12 October 1979
Small subs
could -serve
as SIX missile
launch-sites
Small - submarines: iif American coastal strong controversy over Senate ratification of,
By John IL Cooleq.
Staff correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor
Washington
Pentagon's proposed"loop road" -launching
sites, says a leading expert on strategic de-
fense systems.
Dr. Sidney Drell, who took part in much of
the research that led President" Carter and
Defense Secretary Harold Brown to conclude
that, fixed US land-based Minuteman missile
silos are dangerously vulnerable to increas-
higly accurate Soviet missiles, calls his con-
cept Shallow Underwater Mobile (SUM).
This is scientific-bureaucratic jargon for
easy-to-build, diesel-powered submarines of
about 500 tons apiece - in contrast to the
mammoth, 18,000-ton, billion-dollar nuclear-
powered Trident submarines the US Navy
now is building.
Some 50 or so SUMS, each carrying two of
the new MX. missiles and cruising- within
about 200 miles of the US Atlantic and Pacific
coasts, would be relatively safe from enemy
intercontinental. ballistic missiles than the
land-based mobile MX is far more accurate functions would be relatively simple on- the
based and giant-submarine-based missiles.-'"'- acknowledgement and authentication
The administration- has argued, that the signaling, and other command and control
consists of nucleararmed bombers, and land-. Secure communications, including
could be a "fourth leg" to the "three-legged" Navy's Polaris and Trident subs have com ,
- litical and., environmental, objections and changes made at sea, if necessary,. to avoid
other difficulties such as procuring enough ports in. wartime, and the submarines could.
water. Even if both this and.the Trident pro- "plug into" low-frequency communications.
Nevada, . .
Nevamay not be built because of local p*- Supplies could be replenished and crew~
MX program, sheltering missiles in silos con- SUM, he adds, would be highly computerized
Dr: Drell- believes the present $33 billion : undersea craft the size he is talking about.;
Dr. Drell contends. - oceanographic research subs are examples of
strategic attack or antisubmarine warfare,
accuracy could be sharpened by satellite and
land-based remote guidance,
Dr. Drell's suggestions were made last
Feb. 6 and 7 to a congressional subcommittee, 1
but were largely ignored. He says this was be-
cause "the Navy is not interested in promot-
ing any system that opposes Trident. They
James' R. Schlesinger proposed a smaller
submarine system, the "Narwhal," in his 1976
defense posture statement, but Navy objec
Dr. Drell spoke at a recent private briefing
introduction of his "small is beautiful idea
into the ongoing debate over US strategic sys-.
working with the Stanford Linear Accelerator
at Stanford, California, and a consultant to
the White House and the Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency, admits he is not quali_;_
fled to judge relative cost factors on the SUM:
and other systems. However, he, was associ-,
ated with the 1978 "Jason" study and others
on the aiming and accuracy of-air-launched
and sea-launched missiles.
One of the main administration arguments
for the "race track" land-based mobile-mis
sile system has been its high degree of accu
racy-. Without elaborating, Dr. Drell argues
that. - "encapsulated" MX -missiles fired by
SUM could be remotely guided with great ac-
curacy, either by a satellite system, now. un-
der development by the Navy, or by land
based guidance systems.
Dr. Drell says West- Germany's class of
500-ton submarines with 18-man crews, built
Approved For. Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400350052-6