Jul 9 1967
From The Space Library
USN decision to study a ship-based antimissile missile system [see July 3] was praised by Hanson Baldwin in the New York Times. "Strategically and tactically the role of the Navy has been transformed by the nuclear age; the depths of the sea, the space above the atmosphere and every part of every land mass on earth are now accessible to modern naval power." Proposed SABMIS system would be especially effective because: (1) nuclear submarines' ability to remain completely submerged indefinitely gave them unequaled defense invulnerability; (2) submarine-launched ballistic missile would draw enemy attack toward seas rather than toward populated land as land-based missiles do; (3) sea-based system would be more effective against enemy missile containing several warheads, each capable of maneuvering along different trajectory; and (4) system would be able to intercept enemy missiles in midcourse, rather than terminal phase. (Baldwin, NYT, 7/9/67)
Effect of sonic boom on SST flight routes and sales prospects was discussed by Secretary of Transportation Alan S. Boyd, FAA Administrator William F. McKee, and Director of SST Development BJG J. C. Maxwell (USAF, Ret.) in May and June testimony released by House Committee on Appropriations' Subcommittee on the Dept. of Transportation. Conditions under which supersonic flight would be permitted over populated land areas had still not been determined, Gen. Maxwell explained. "The available sonic boom data indicate that the present SST design may possibly be restricted from supersonic operations over populated land areas . . . [and we] have based our SST program decisions on the conservative assumption that this design will be operated primarily on water." DOT did not have to force the American public to tolerate sonic booms to make SST program an economic success, Secretary Boyd assured the Committee. "We are satisfied that we can have a . . . highly successful program, assuming the sonic boom is intolerable over populated areas. . . . The only thing that is involved here is whether we sell more aircraft, not whether the program is a success. . . ." Even if SST were limited to subsonic flight over inhabited areas at least 300 aircraft could be sold initially, he said, and market studies indicated "that there is a possibility of going up to 1,200 aircraft by 1990." (Transcript, 41, 294, 942)
NATO had begun to modernize its communications network by using comsats, Clyde H. Farnsworth reported in the New York Times. Initial $900,000 test phase of project had been inaugurated by Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer in a transmission from his headquarters in Casteau, Belgium, to Naples, Italy, via one of DOD's 15 Initial Defense Communications Satellite Project (IDCSP) satellites. US., which had proposed the NATO project, was permitting NATO to use the IDCSP satellites temporarily. Following approval of the second phase of the project, $45 million-of which US. would pay 25%-would be spent to link 12 alliance countries via two 100-lb comsats owned by NATO and launched by USAF into synchronous orbits over the Atlantic. Two ground stations would be in US. and one in each NATO country except France (who had not been invited to participate in the project), Luxembourg, and Iceland. (Farnsworth, NYT, 7/9/67, 17)
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