Interviewer:
I HATE TO DO THIS, BUT COULD YOU REPEAT THAT WITHOUT
SAYING, WITHOUT ANSWERING YOUR QUESTION? I'D LIKE TO DISAPPEAR FROM ANY OF
THIS...
Martin:
Right. The strategic concept that existed then and
still exists today as a matter of national military policy, is normally
commonly called the triad of strategic forces. The triad consists of manned
bombers, land launched missiles, and sea launched missiles. Each one of
those three types of forces has strengths and potential weaknesses. But
together they complicate the enemies planning problem immensely. For
example, if the enemy is going to strike US strategic forces, it's much
more difficult for him to strike two different kinds of missiles and bombers
than it would be to strike just one of those three forces. Defensively, it
complicates his problem because he'll have attacks coming against him from
those three different kinds of weapons. To give you a quick example...of his
offensive planning being complicated. If the Soviet Union is planning to
attack the United States, ah, strategically, with nuclear weapons, as soon
as he launches a missile, he's giving some warning. Because of our detection
ability. As soon as he launches bombers, he's giving a warning. Now if he
launches the bombers, hours before he launches the missiles, so that all the
weapons will arrive on their targets at the same time, we're going to have
more warning. Because it will take the bombers longer to get there. On the
other hand, if he waits until ah, it's time to use the missiles only, then
his bombers are not going to get to the targets at the same time. It's a
complication of planning.