ABSTRACT
The importance to defence of ignorance buttressed by secrecy is not new, the safety of the submarine borne ballistic missile force of both sides depends upon it and the multiple protective shelters (MPS) even without low altitude defence system was to be built around it. It remains probable that the eventual means chosen of basing the MX missile, if there is indeed to be one, will feature ballistic missile defense (BMD) in some role. The contending plans for an MX land basing scheme to replace the MPS that have received a public airing do not seem immediately to be natural candidates for supplementary ballistic missile defence. The leverage that comes with preferential defence and long range interceptors was important to the US Army’s Sentinel BMD system, which in the late 1960s was put forward by the Johnson Administration as a means of protecting United States’ cities against the projected threat of a light and primitive Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles attack.
