Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE
The American ABM appeared dead. It would not come back to
life for another decade.
Ballistic Missile Defense: Rebirth
Ballistic missile defense continued after the demise of Safeguard,
albeit on a much-reduced scale. Funding dropped from
about $1 billion a year in the late 1960s to about a tenth of
that by 1980. It would take major events to reverse this trend.
Meanwhile, one effort attempted to connect the BMD with the
defense of Minuteman sites. It began in 1971 as Hardsite Defense,
a prototype program built around a modified Sprint and
hardened silos. From this, the Army proposed a system it called
LoAD (low altitude defense) that featured a high-acceleration
missile armed with a nuclear warhead like the Sprint but considerably
smaller (fig. 86). 44 It came into view linked to the siting
of the MX (missile experimental) ICBM that followed the Minuteman
series in a basing proposal, known as Multiple Protective
Shelter (MPS). 45 The defenders would bury a mobile BMD system
in a tunnel, one defensive unit per ICBM complex, which they believed
would effectively double the number of missiles the attacker
would have to use to ensure destruction of the ICBMs.
There were major obstacles to this arrangement. First, this
scheme could require modification or abrogation of the ABM
treaty because of LoAD’s mobility. Second, an October 1980
Army study estimated its cost at $8.6 billion over 10 years.
Third, MPS required a massive land area, sparking resistance by
the residents and congressmen of the affected areas. 46
Pres. Ronald Reagan created a commission, chaired by retired
US Air Force lieutenant general Brent Scowcroft, to study the
issues of ICBM basing and updating of strategic forces. The report
in April 1983 concluded that no current BMD technology
appeared to combine “practicability, survivability, low cost and
technical effectiveness sufficient to justify proceeding beyond
the stage of technology development.” 47 Partially because of this
report, the government cancelled the BMD system for MPS in
1984 and decided to put the new missiles into silos that had
housed Minuteman III missiles. 48 Reagan ended this one BMD
scheme and went on to start another more far-reaching one.
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