ABSTRACT
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT) of 1972 between the US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is very brief-four pages in Arms Control and Disarmament Agreements plus three more of Agreed Statements and Common Understandings. The ABMT permits only those items specified; everything else is forbidden. Thus ABM systems based on other physical principles may not be deployed at all until "specific limitations" are agreed as indicated. The ABMT set the precedent of specifically acknowledging the acceptability of "national technical means" of verification of the treaty provisions and banning interference with them. Compliance is verified when one can reliably detect noncompliance. The main point is that without a ban on space weapons and on anti satellite weapons (ASAT) tests, "verifying compliance" with the ABMT alone will not stop evolution of technology that could result in a troublesome ABM system. For an ABMT supplemented by a ban on space weapons and ASAT tests, the dynamics of verification are very different.
