ABSTRACT
The Strategic Defense Initiative had shifted the focus of US strategy away from preserving the traditional deterrent framework, casting a long shadow over US strategic forces, arms control, and even conventional military programs. The most exalted manifestation of this fallacy is in the area of nuclear arms control. A similar attack on nuclear deterrence has come from proponents of strategic defenses, whose technological exuberance supports the belief that current nuclear forces will soon be obsolete. Third-country nuclear forces complicate assessments of the strategic balance as well as the resolution of arms control negotiating issues. Assessments of the East-West military balance, which tend to be heavily hardware oriented, may be a carryover from strategic net assessment. The US Navy edged toward its goal of 600 ships, with over $11 billion devoted to shipbuilding in fiscal 1987. Soviet aircraft design provides a number of case studies that illustrate overall weapons design practices, especially those for high-technology weaponry.
