X-RAY MISSILE TO BE KEY IN DEFENSE AGAINST CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300110050-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2006
• Sequence Number: 50
• Publication Date: November 16, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300110050-8
X'Ray Missile to ''R6
In Defense Against China
By JOHN W. FINNEY
Special to The New"Sork Time,
WASHINGTON, NOV.-15-The Atomic Energy Commis-
lion was reported today to be making significant progress
in developing a radically new nuclear X-ray warhead ,that
would be a vital element in the Sentinel ballistic missile
(defense. system being erected against. Communist China.
In contrast to past warheads, which were designed,to
destrby"bY ` blast and heat ef-
fects, the new. type of ther-
nioi uclear weapon will give
,off bursts of X-rays to destroy
incoming missile warheads.
In heavily censored test!-
subcommittee, Dr. John S. Fos-
ter Jr., the Pentagon's director
of defense research and engi-
neering, confirmed that the
develo ing a
irony, published last May 10,
before a Senate Disarmament
In, atomic energy circles, the
plosions to destroy incoming
missile warheads.
United States was l?"ate ?~~
missile defense system that) the Administration against the for various types of shielding,
would use tremendous bursts of emerging missile threat from requiring the weapons design-
X-rays from thermonuclear ex- Communist China. er, because'of the extra weight,
A..,'-.+ a llmi*nrl df+arir citrh
C
give off a complete spectrum United States. heavy Against attack a
of X-rays, from low to high
such as the Soviet Union would
energy. be capable of launching, the
nd Ato 'Energy Comm sie The pr confronting the
left tl 1 ression t th. 4apons tests, however,
warhe ' for,the sy teni'oul s to-d- a warhead that
be ba1W on weapons tech- Would give off a whole spec-
nolo developed before the trum of X-rays-from the low-
gY energy ones that tend to be
limited test ban treaty of 1963 stopped by the outer casing of
prevented further testing in the warhead to the high-energy
the atmosphere. ones that can penetrate inside
What has been kept secret the warhead and upset its in
Administration is that ternal fusing mechanism. It is
by this critical technical problem
this the he
step required the develop- that weapons scientists of the
meat of an entirely new type Atomic Energy Commission, be-
of atomic weapon and that de-
velopment of the Spectrum
bomb began in 1964 and has
been pursued in intensive un-
derground testing at the Nevada
test site. X-ray, the designer of the of-I
.The Spectrum war head, fensive missile warhead had a!
with its explosive yield of relatively simple problem. He
about one megaton (equal toe would just have to encase his
warhead with
million tons of TNT) will be some shielding
material to stop and absorb
carried by the Spartan missile the energy of that type of
a three-stage missile capable of X-ray.
intercepting incoming missile But the problem for the .of-
warheads above the earth's at- fensive missile is greatly com-
mosphere. The Sentinel system - plicated if the warhead must
that the Spectrum will serve contend with a a 4 wholerange
as Communist China would be
capable of launching, the X-ray
concept, in the opinion of the
dubbed the Spectrum bomb 11 -
promise of providing an effec-
a name signifying that it willp tive defense for all of the
Likened to Earlier Gain Defense Department believes
The development of the war- that a missible defense system
head is regarded by atomic would be ineffective. For that
weapons experts as an advance reason, the department has de-
in weaponry, comparable sig- cided to deploy a "thin" anti-
. ballistic missile system aimed
decade ago of a high-yield, low- to deploy a much more costly
t weight warhead for an inter- "heavy" system against the So-
icontinental missile. viet Union.
Just as the earlier develop- The Spectrum's development
ihter- has gone through a long, some-
times halting evolution in the
continental missile system, so Atomic Energy Commission's
the Spectrum opens up the weapons laboratories. The
possibility of developing an theoretical concept of .using
"area defense" against at least X-rays in a missile defense sys-
1 a small-scale missile attack. tem was advanced about a dec
A o It was not until the
e a
g .
In heavily censored testimony a
last few years, however, that
last May before a Senate Dis- atomic weapons scientists saw
armament subcommittee, Dr- a way of designing a warhead
John S. Foster Jr.,' the Defense designed to produce X-rays.
Department's director of de- Rays of High Energy
fense research and engineering, The underlying principle of
confirmed that the Unitedthe spectrum bomb is that in
defense system that would use
tremendous bursts of X-rays
from termonuclear explosions
to destroy incoming missile
Appro
can travel hundreds of miles
with the speed of light-(about
Ti IK-raysinge on an object,
- ku, c _kA atL r ~-*iergy
lieve, on the basis of their un-
derground tests with prelimin-
ary versions of the "spectrum"
warhead, they have solved.
So long as the defensive war-
head gave off only one type of
to reduce tfte a Quilt ol,explb=
W
slv VffiF ec
pat into e
warhead.
In secret testimony today
before a Joint Congressional
Atomic Energy subcommittee,
representatives of the Los Ala-
mos Scientific Laboratory in
New Mexico, the Lawrence Ra-
diation Laboratory in Cali-
fornia and the Dandia Corpora-
tion - the A.E.C.'s three prin-
cipal weapons laboratories -
reviewed the progress being
made In. developmentof the
specturum bomb.
This development according
to weapons scientists, has been
impeded somewhat by the test
ban treaty, which has restricte-
ed all developmental shots to
underground caverns and wells.
The tlf-derground testing has
create tffj u]t in determin-
ing the explosions' output of
00300110050-8
 Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300110050-8
X-rays. It also has limited the
size of the permitable explo-
sighs.
So far, a full-scale version
of the spectrum bomb has not
holes, however, atomic weap-
been tested. By digging deeper
ons scientists believe they can
eventually test the planned
Megaton . version without re-
leasing any radioactive debris,
and thus violating the test ban
treaty:
5th & 1st add bomb 35 w
Despite the treaty restric.
tions, the weapons scientists
of the A.E.C. were said to have
expressed confidence before the
"ongressional subcommittee
:hat they could perfect the
spectrum to deploy in the senti-
iel system on time, some five
rears hence. According to Ad-
ninistration officials, there is
io pressure now from the weap-
ons laboratories to violate the
trb1t Y' flndk1lx t east
one proo~es ` in ie atinos-
Some weapons experts and
members of the congressional
committee, however, are con-
cerned that the Soviet Union.,
in intensive high-altitude test-
ing before the treaty sent into
effect, might have gained a
technoligcal lead over the Unit-
ed States in developing the
X-ray concept. Some experts
speculate that such a technolog-
ical advantage may help ex?
plain why the Soviet Union is
committing billions of rubles
to deploy a ballistic missile
defense system against the
United States.
According to officials in-
volved ip t e Sentinel project,
lore is o ve,~nswer
tb tfu% s even if
thh Soviet Union has a tech-
nolrgical advantage in use of
X--a3 ^, Pentagon officials re-
main confident that any Soviet
defense system can be over-
whelmed by American missiles.
In the case of Communist
China, h owever, Pentagon of-
ficials argue that the X-ray
concept gives the United States
a technological advantage that
makes an effective defense
feasible. It is acknowledged
that China is likely to turn
to - certain countermeasures,
such as shielding its warheads
against X-rays. But neither in
terms of sophistication of tech-
nology nor numbers of missiles
is Communist China believed
capable of contending with a
United States defense system
at least into the 1980's.
Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300110050-8