The survivability of the strategic bombers, while important today, is likely to be viewed as being of even greater importance in the 1990s if the US makes drastic cuts in its strategic forces as proposed in START and possible follow-on treaties. The analysis in this paper indicates that the Soviets with only a few SSBNs could pose a serious threat to the survivability of the strategic bombers (as presently based) if they moved these SSBNs close to the coasts or developed short-time-of-flight trajectories for their SLBMs. In searching for ways to improve bomber survivability, the use of the proposed LPS (Limited Protection System) ABM to defend bomber bases was examined, but found to offer marginal improvement, at best. However, a significant improvement in survivability against even severe threats could be achieved if the alert bomber forces were rebased at a large number (preferably 40 or more) of separate bases distributed in a region in the interior of the country with the closest base being at least 500 nmi from the coasts.


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    Title :

    Start and Bomber Survivability


    Contributors:
    R. D. Speed (author)

    Publication date :

    1989


    Size :

    60 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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