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STRAT-X

STRAT-X, or Strategic-Experimental, was a U.S. government-sponsored study conducted during 1966 and 1967 that comprehensively analyzed the potential future of the U.S. nuclear deterrent force. At the time, the Soviet Union was making significant strides in nuclear weapons delivery, and also constructing anti-ballistic missile defenses to protect strategic facilities. To address a potential technological gap between the two superpowers, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara entrusted the classified STRAT-X study to the Institute for Defense Analyses, which compiled a twenty-volume report in nine months. The report looked into more than one hundred different weapons systems, ultimately resulting in the MGM-134 Midgetman and LGM-118 Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Ohio-class submarines, and the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles, among others. Journalists have regarded STRAT-X as a major influence on the course of U.S. nuclear policy.

Date

1 November 1966 (1966-11-01) – August 1967 (1967-08)[2]

Strategic-Experimental

U.S. Department of Defense
Institute for Defense Analyses
U.S. Armed Forces
Military contractors

Implementation of several military concepts

Background[edit]

In the mid-1960s, reports received by U.S. intelligence agencies indicated that the Soviets were planning to deploy large numbers of highly accurate and powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).[3] Later, the R-36 ICBM entered service. Possessing the greatest throw weight of any ICBM ever at 8.8 tonnes (19,000 lb), the R-36 was larger than the most modern ICBMs in the U.S. arsenal at the time.[4] Due to its size, it was able to carry high-yield warheads capable of destroying Minuteman hardened silos (see Counterforce). This was considered a significant risk to American ICBMs and, as a result, to the United States' nuclear defense strategy by reducing the United States' ability to retaliate with nuclear weapons if attacked.[N 1]


At the same time, the Soviets were designing and constructing increasingly sophisticated anti-ballistic missile defense systems to protect strategically important facilities around Moscow,[3] reducing the threat posed by American ICBMs. These developments compelled the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, to commission a study to look into ways of improving the survivability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.[3][N 2]


According to Graham Spinardi in his book From Polaris to Trident (1994), STRAT-X was a response by the U.S. Department of Defense's Deputy Director of Defense Research and Engineering, Lloyd Wilson, to the U.S. Air Force; the service was demanding a large ICBM called the WS-120A. Spinardi suggests that STRAT-X was allowed to proceed so it could terminate the study for such a missile.[6] Funding for the WS-120A would not be released by Secretary McNamara, and plans for such a missile were canceled in 1967.[7]

Weapons systems inspired by STRAT-X

A Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile firing its rocket motors after emerging from the ocean.

Blunt-nosed missile, with its rocket motors fired, splashes huge white waves as it positions itself on an angle for a ballistic firing.

An MGM-134 Midgetman intercontinental ballistic missile shortly after launch.

Portrait photo of missile firing its rocket motors shortly after launch.

An LGM-118 Peacekeeper missile leaving its hardened silo.

Huge missile with body painted in black rising out of silo during a launch, producing clouds of gas at the silo's opening. In the distant is a coastline.

USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN-730), one of the eighteen Ohio-class boats constructed[14][15]

Submarine in bay with valleys and snow-capped mountains in the background.

A Minuteman III Air Launched ICBM test launch from a C-5 Galaxy in October 1974.

Sequence of grey-scale photos of transport aircraft releasing a missile from its aft loading door.

Legacy[edit]

STRAT-X had far-reaching effects on the development and deployment of U.S. nuclear forces. It was the first time that the strategic requirements of the U.S. Armed Forces were addressed in a detailed and analytical manner.[5] In a 2002 report by the RAND Corporation, STRAT-X was described as "one of the most influential analyses ever conducted" for the U.S. Department of Defense.[1] Journalist Peter Grier, in his Air Force magazine article "STRAT-X", described the study as "a wide-ranging look at the future of U.S. weapons that shaped the nuclear triad for decades, and remains a model for such efforts today".[1][9] In 2006, the Defense Science Board (DFS) noted STRAT-X's introduction of ideas and concepts that resulted in the Ohio-class submarines and small and mobile ICBMs.[3] The DFS also attributed the use of air-launched cruise missiles, particularly those carried by the B-52 Stratofortress, to STRAT-X despite their lack of references in the study.[11]