ABSTRACT
UK interest in US views about, and work on, defence against ballistic missiles began even before Britain’s own postwar research programme. The 1949 intelligence conference and the 1953 Conference ‘Ally’1 were early manifestations of that interest and the start of a diverse and developing pattern of cooperation throughout the 1950s. By 1956 the Americans were describing their own ABM developments to the British,2 within the context of an exchange of views on active defence techniques. These exchanges continued, largely through the medium of Sub-Group F. In October 1958 the Chief Scientist reported to the Defence Board that the Americans were planning to deploy a system for the defence of North America by 1963, but that as their problem was different, the system might not be effective for the UK.3 It was recognised that the United States was ‘a good further along the road’,4 and as the technological and financial scale of the problem became ever-more clear, the need to combine efforts with the Americans became pressing.5 The US Nike-Zeus6 system was of interest to Britain as a possible ABM alternative to Red Duster (Bloodhound), and to inform British work on a dedicated ABM interceptor.
