mjk@ttrdc.UUCP (Mike Kelly) (04/23/85)
References: <123@ttrdc.UUCP> <550@abnji.UUCP> <40@harvard.ARPA> <592@whuxl.UUCP>, <56@harvard.ARPA> You should read The New Yorker articles during April on C3I capabilities and implications. The conclusion is that the incredible deficiencies are not present because of incompetence, but because the normal technical progress has tended towards producing first-strike capable weapons, and the war plans have adjusted to that by adopting a first-strike posture. Thus, the deficiencies in C3I are not seen as serious because the Pentagon does not expect to have to use the system *after* a Soviet strike, only to launch a U.S. preemptive strike. One can assume the Soviets have a mirror-image plan. Thus, the destabilization. The build-up offers absolutely no answer to this. In fact, the Reagan programs -- MX, SDI, Trident II, Cruise -- all *worsen* the situation.