The AMB Treaty: Toward the 21st century

Journal Article · Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Arms Control Today; (USA)

OSTI ID:6714854

Bunn, M

Question regarding the ABM Treaty likely to arise fall into 3 main categories: (1) even elimination of the Krasnoyarsk radar will leave some ambiguities in the ABM Treaty's treatment of large phased-array radars (LPARs); agreed clarifications might help forestall future disagreements; (2) continuing issues are likely to be raised by the overlap between ABM and non-AMB technologies, such as air defense or antisatellite (ASAT) weapons; and (3) more specific limitations must be developed for new technologies, such as the lasers and infrared sensors under development in the SDI program. The fundamental criteria for judging proposed solutions to these problems are their ability to achieve the basic goals of the ABM Treaty in a verifiable manner, without unduly interfering with other important military or civilian missions, such as early warning or air defense, or with continued research on ABM. (Military missions whose restraint is desirable for other reasons, such as ASAT, might be limited without under-mining U.S. security). As with the original ABM negotiation, the goal must be to ensure that militarily significant nationwide ABM systems are prohibited, and that neither side can develop a ready base for quickly deploying such a nationwide system - whether by rapidly building additional ABM components, or by upgrading ostensibly non-ABM systems to have an ABM systems to have an ABM capability - without clearly and observably violating the accord.

• OSTI ID: 6714854
• Journal Information: Arms Control Today; (USA), Vol. 20:3; ISSN 0196-125X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
ARMS CONTROL
TREATIES
BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE
LASERS
RADAR
RAILGUN ACCELERATORS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
VERIFICATION
ACCELERATORS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NATIONAL DEFENSE
RANGE FINDERS
350100* - Arms Control- Policy
Negotiations
& Legislation- (1987-)
450500 - Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense- Strategic Defense Initiative- (1990-)