AT&T Archives: A 20-year History of Antiballistic Missile Systems

For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com/archives
This film examines five different experimental and functional antiballistic missile systems worked on by Western Electric and Bell Labs in conjunction with the U.S. Army: the ABM studies, Nike Zeus, Nike-X, Sentinel, and Safeguard. It also shows the Spartan and Sprint systems, the Ballistic Missile Defense Operations Center, the BDMC at Cheyenne Mountain, PAR antennas and console operations, and the BDMC's link with NORAD. There are lots of images of real - and animated - missile launches.
In 1976, after this film was made, the Sentinel/Safeguard systems were scrapped due to low usefulness and high costs. In 1980, President Reagan pushed the SDI, or "Star Wars" system. SDI became the Missile Defense Agency in 2002, and the agency still has not abandoned Reagan's dream of a powerful defensive net.
Made by Western Electric and Bell Laboratories for the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Defense Systems Command
Producer: Film Enterprises, Inc., New York, NY
Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

[@stvitalkid7981]

The music at 02:17 was the theme music for the local CBC supper-hour news show, 24 Hours, around the early1980’s.

[@thothheartmaat2833]

Imagine all the military videos like this about technology and stuff there must be..

[@xXPlumpkinXx]

That nobody watches and instead listens to "That guy on YT" Haha. Classic.

[@NikovK]

The Sprint missile's skin heated so hot an acetylene torch would cool it.

[@drrobert7543]

I love the Monday Night Football music around 17 minutes when discussing one of the program tests!

[@tealc6218]

Also "This Week in Baseball" at 2:09

[@jamesguitarshields]

man, this film is a treasure trove of old KPM library music...

[@jimaitken9736]

'Superstars' theme at 16:41, amongst many others!

[@Daniel-S1]

What's the music played at 25.11 minutes through to 26.05?

[@40rtyp]

This is Gold!

[@johnfrancis4949]

No it's old😂

[@berkeoral763]

i dont know why, but i felt the same excitement as i first play the red alert-2 ten years ago.

[@yelectric1893]

Man the technical information with the trials and tribulations of the program are riveting. Thanks for telling us about this :D

[@ghostjohn2001]

This is the best video I've ever seen about the missile program, I was surprised. I'm not sure where the nickname originated, but we called the Russian spy ship "Brand X". They knew the schedule of our missions as well as we did. That ship showed up as regular as clock work.The guy who took film footage of that ship was hung out the back of a "Caribou" aircraft in a nylon harness (not enough room to tell that story), lol....still think he was nuts, I lived on Meck Island for a few years.

[@SpenserRoger]

ghostjohn2001 Woah insane story!

[@lattilatti6441]

those were the days..

[@scruffguitar2]

@@lattilatti6441 looks like those days are coming back around now....

[@Charlesputnam-bn9zy]

@@scruffguitar2 Yes, they are back the bad old days of nuclear terror. For the people who support a mad dictator hell-bent on nihilism, are madder than the dictator himself. Just look at how the Germans kept supporting der fuehrer to the bitter end, although he cursed them for the defeat & for betraying him.

[@scruffguitar2]

@@Charlesputnam-bn9zy Absolutely true, mad men in power with unrealistic or romantic notions about life and war will always bring all they influence to ruin. I can only hope that there will be a more successful Stauffenberg this time around. On the other side of the equation, American society seems balanced on the very edge of a precipice.... looks to me like a large percentage of my fellow countrymen are in a fantasy world, morally and logically bankrupt. How could this people rise to the level of our ancestors? How few of us would fight? Could fight, for that matter. We are wallowing in selfishness and hedonism, and the entire world pays the price for our blind manipulation of international politics. We somehow have been turned into the weak, led by the stupid, with laws enforced by the incompetent and corrupt.....

[@blip1]

The original concept for ABM goes clear back to the Operation Argus film. KZbin that for the almost 1 hour length declassified (partially) film.

[@Jack2Japan]

Interesting history. Thanks for collecting and making available.

[@frankhertler1]

Wonderful history lesson for all on what the Military went through to protect this country.

[@petermallia558]

PS.…. By the way, I can't get enough of films like this. I long for a time ling before I was born, where big military technology projects were underway, bringing in a new age in research and development of these most vital of systems for our protection. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇺🇲🇨🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿

[@djand77]

No heat stress on the parts from being soldered. Most satellite stuff is wave soldered in a single pass. If it doesn't work the first time, it isn't repaired because it would add heat stress to part of the circuit that would then have a much higher chance of failure.

[@mynameisben123]

Would that not still apply heat stress since different materials expand differently with temperature?

[@oilsmokejones3452]

Terrific effort I think not known by most Americans...I love how casually he says "nuclear environment"...

[@rocketassistedgoat1079]

It's pronounced "noo-cew-lar".

[@LucasPereiradaSilva]

It is VERY impressive how they achieved that with so primitive electronic components and computers! I believe today even a raspberry pi would be faster than these military computers.

[@ssbohio]

You should see its predecessor, the SA/GE air defense system.

[@Toole8]

Gxyu

[@frizzlefry1921]

@@ssbohio No doubt, gigantic building full of tubes gold far as the eye can see.

[@mikeissweet]

A Pi would be *vastly* more powerful. Would smoke everything in miles, combined.

[@wmffmw1854]

You would be right about speed. Consider this the Intel 8080 ran at 4MHz and the theoretical max speed of CMOS of the era was 32MHz. The limited resources of the day caused us to get creative.

[@LostAnFound]

11:18: Thousands of foams blocks containing tiny metal slivers. It sounds like a very early metamaterial waveguide assembly.

[@cooperised]

23:22 'Ultimately, the multiprocessor approach would deliver a computing speed of over 20 million instructions per second'. The $5 microcontroller on my desk will process around 170 million instructions per second, but I still wouldn't want to try and use it to intercept a ballistic target doing 4 miles per second. Must have been some interesting coding...

[@NikovK]

Sprint hit its target re-entry vehicles until they had to de-tune the targeting radar to allow proximity detonations.

[@mynameisben123]

Keep in mind modern programming approaches vastly simplify things by allowing you to build on the backs of giants, using operating systems and libraries that solve many more problems than you strictly need solved. If you build everything from scratch (read: more people, time, money) you would be blown away with what can be done with very little computational power.

[@cooperised]

@@mynameisben123 Wow, a reply to a nine-year-old comment! My interest is in bare-metal coding, I develop (and teach the development of) real-time operating system kernels for embedded systems, among other things. So yes you're right, the computational power available in even the most basic of modern devices is mind-blowing, and removing layers of abstraction helps to unlock that. But the sheer complexity and cost of the development process, eventually managing to do so much so accurately with so little, must have been amazing.

[@mytech6779]

@@cooperised There is more to the old systems that is often lost on modern coders, bare metal or otherwise. Analog computing has always been the fastest game in town(though much less versatile and harder to program than digital) and analog was still doing a lot of the auxiliary heavy lifting, signal processing and such so the digital computer could focus on specific tasks. But along with that, they only wanted the most bare bones output, not even conversion to ascii on a terminal. Just pure binary calculation straight to an electrical output signal. (where another device may act as either digital translation or a DAC)

[@DoktorStrangelove]

16:38 _WELCOME TO MONDAY NIGHT BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE!_

[@fwh79FOXR6]

Hahahaha!!! That's awesome.

[@CommieGIR]

To further expound upon this: A lot of electronics on fighters are wire wrapped AND soldered so that the heavy vibration cannot disjoint the wires from the post. A lot of our test equipment in the Air Force also was wire wrapped.

[@stupidburp]

Shame that they didn’t build a second site on the East Coast. I imagine somewhere in upstate New York might have been the location for the installation. While it would have been only partial protection, it could have provided better monitoring of the approach areas. A clear sky on the approach path could have given added assurances of potential false launch tracks which happened occasionally. Fortunately it wasn’t necessary after all but it might have provided some added safety and security for some time. If both sites remained operational then they may have upgraded them instead of discontinued them. Today we might have GMD, AEGIS Ashore, THAAD, and Patriot in layers at those sites. Instead we have a rather incomplete mix of systems focused on coverage over limited areas.

[@gomergomez1984]

Back when Air Defense was at its peak. I didn’t know that the IC was a direct product of ABM research, so cool.

[@thomasbell7033]

I am a journalist and aviation writer and I covered things like this for decades. In my old age, though, I have only one thought about it: What a vast squandering of treasure and human imagination.

[@Tripple_Threatt92]

I wouldn’t consider missile defense totally useless, we also reached the only treaties we ever got the the Soviet Union/Russia with missile defense systems

[@LeCharles07]

40:35 :O A dispensary?! So far ahead of it's time!

[@michaelsoland3293]

I fell asleep on hypersonics and woke up on this, what the actual hell lol

[@mytech6779]

Yeah the sprint was a successful hypersonic, in the 1960s. Along with the manned x-15 hypersonic.

[@robf93]

Just wow. Wow!

[@Oshiba88]

23:20 wohoo that's wopping 20 mhz baby!! Pretty cool think that they had to invent everything from scratch.

[@punman5392]

During the 20th century at least, almost every advance in computer technology was made for the military first, and then trickled into the commercial/civilian market. The only real exception is the space program. Even then, civilian space programs are really just applications of military tech to civilian science missions

[@tamertamer9784]

Your friend from Syria is a technology researcher.The systems that were approved and elected to operate the missile defense system became used on a small scale for many other weapons, and this huge project was a school from which the American military arsenal learned.

[@Burningwithecstasy]

Long lost Robotech prequel! I can dig it!

[@markbrisec3972]

I would ask anyone interested in missile technology to research the Sprint missile for a moment. The level of technology and performance that that missile possesed is above and beyond anything the US or any of our adversaries have today.

[@nutsackmania]

It is really remarkable. That it was pulled off shows how well engineering/management/tech all came together.

[@gotanon8958]

The sprint missile is basically a nuke strapped onto a really powerfull rocket engine.

[@Tripple_Threatt92]

@@gotanon89580-Mach10 in 5 seconds with 100g acceleration

[@strategicconsensus]

I'm not claiming to know the full answer but here is my guess: Bell Labs was a subsidiary of AT&T and Bell Labs had its fingers in a lot of military pies. If Wikipedia is to be believed then "all of the Nike projects were led by Bell Labs" - note that this video suggests these were the forerunners of the ABM effort (04:00 onwards). My guess is that it is the Bell Labs connection that has resulted in these videos ending up in the AT&T archives.

[@evanfinch4987]

Um, duh?

[@mynameisben123]

This is without a doubt what has happened.

[@nutsackmania]

This system was completely bonkers; huge phased-array radar with multiple target tracking, bespoke nuclear warheads, all that software/computing/controllers, standalone power plant, etc. The Sprint missile alone would've been a risky capital capital project. Then it was never scaled or operated for even operated for more than a year. All those resources just to do it. This is the kind of thing a society on the move builds--what a crazy period.

[@ronjon7942]

It’s overwhelming to get a glimpse of the technological and societal complexities during the Cold War, and a lot of resources went into systems that ultimately were never used. Fortunately. Maybe that was ultimately the point. The Cold War was no joke, and we did the best we could (and at a profit) to protect our way of life; I don’t think anyone wouldn’t have wanted to use these resources towards hunger and poverty, but the threat, or perceived threat, was real. Perhaps it could be viewed from today’s point of view that people then were compassionate and empathetic too, and made the choice to secure our future then so as to be able to deal with elevating citizens wellbeing after. Regardless, for better or worse, it happened. Perhaps the best we can do now is to learn from how we handled ourselves during this period, which is why I’m so grateful these films have been made available.

[@kevinbushey1879]

The military is twenty years ahead of us all the time, even now there 20 plus years ahead of us. The military had computer back in the late 50 .

[@TheIdeanator]

Iiiiiinteresting. I just did a report on the Star Wars initiative of the 80's

[@LostAnFound]

34:04: Why would a ballistic re-entry vehicle be ascending toward the sprint while making a hard turn? I looks like a Tic-Tac. The Sprint was designed to intercept re-entry vehicles in the terminal (ballistic) phase of flight where the incoming nuke would be going DOWN. This is similar to the phenomenon discussed by Professor Robert Jacobs, the officer in charge of optical instrumentation at Vandenburg AFB in the early 60s. He testified to having filmed a UFO interfering with a dummy ICBM re-entry vehicle. I thought I’d never get to see the film or anything like it. But, here it is!

[@TheCheesyProductions]

ohh ok. that was the only reason i can think of. didn't know that the heat stress played such a big role in reliability

[@LMTDDS]

The whole system was operational though for less than a year as I recall.

[@johnkern7075]

Yes. Mysteries of the abandoned did a story on it. Or episode.

[@DaynerKim]

Goooood~!

[@Justmyside]

A cold soldier joint ( usually a dull colour) will change the resistive characteristics of the properties of highly sensitive parts. These changes , change other values along with continuity. Cold soldier joints usually occur from vibration or for amateurs shaky hands. Yes soldering is for an electrical connection & not a mechanical one, as in why wires are twisted before solder. Minuscule amount of solder does not make wires brittle, over heating does

[@gdurant]

This shows the superiority of the United States Army without question.

[@mauricedubois4918]

I work on nike Hercules missle

[@timmensch3601]

the song at 25:11 is great lol

[@storyhouseproductions5473]

Hey! My name is Caroline and I work for a TV-production company in Germany. We produce documentaries for a very popular science and entertainment show - called "Galileo". The show airs every day on one of Germany's biggest commercial networks, Pro7. These days we are filming a documentary about the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex and therefore we would need footage to show our audience. This video would be perfect for the documentary - would you allow us to show it on TV? I'm looking forward to hearing from you and I am hoping you can help me... thanks a lot in advance and have a nice day! Greetings from Munich!

[@RedTail1-1]

That's not how it works...

[@ghostjohn2001]

Not sure what time frame you are referencing....but the kinetic kill interceptors existed in the early 80's.

[@edsr164]

Would you agree that the SALT agreements were very bad for missile defense?

[@thekaiser4333]

No. A "Hold your rockests, we have to change our data tapes first!" doesn't cut it. SALT saved America's ass and reputation.

[@nutsackmania]

Anything that limits nuclear armaments is a positive step for the human race, bro.

[@dan-tv1kp]

"...20 million instructions per second [DSP]...". I just found a microcontroller unit (STML011F4PG) online that is: - operating at > 32 MIPS - 32bit - consumes microamps of power - equipped with features like: on-board RAM, Flash ROM, serial interfaces, 32 interrupts, 9 channel/12bit ADC ...and is: - at least half the size of (a piece of), and costs at least 3x less than (a pack of) Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Starburst chewing gum Now granted, that's not how much the photo mask, ion deposition machine, silicon purification process, etc. cost, but it's still mind boggling that a consumer can access such advanced technology for well under a USD.

[@messerschmittbolkow5606]

I bet in the next 20 years terrorists are building cruise missiles. Its possible now but not for every idiot out there, there still have to be some tutorials made for that situation.

[@dan-tv1kp]

Totally agree. I feel the only thing that would currently restrain the capabilities of a terror group determined to build a cruise missile now, is the design and manufacturing of things like engines, and axial compressors. However in a decade or two from now, I believe it is possible that a terror group with sufficient funding, expertise, and freely available design and simulation software, may very well design a cruise missile which can be produced in *scale. Such a cruise missile would allow terrorists to hit strategic targets such as power plants, commercial facilities, etc.. That is obviously very bad. Compounding that, current anti-air systems like the Patriot are limited in number, and have faired poorly against cruise missiles and drones (ex. Abqaiq-Khurais attack).

[@dan-tv1kp]

You really can find a tutorial for a lot of things these days. If you can't, then there is still a surplus of information available on the WWW to learn about, and build (with enough fiscal resources) almost anything anyone else can-- if you have the determination to find and learn the information.

[@lorenzoromero8617]

Is there any source recording for the music starting at 37:18 ?

[@Rocketman88002]

Lucas Silva, if you live long enough, you'll say the same thing about current technology. It evolves!

[@Tek-eo3li]

Did you see the size of the computer for Nike-X? 20 MHz !

[@ilionreactor1079]

Do I hear the Monday Night Football theme at about 16:40? Pretty hip.

[@frankhertler1]

@madtrade Yes now it is. But not back then.

[@bretthibbs6083]

I live in Minnesota we had a nike missile base 15 minutes from where I live and til about 12 years ago there was still remenants of the bases still standing but not anymore but in St Boni Minnesota there was a base there it was a radar base and about 5 minutes or so from that there was another base in Delano/ Watertown mn and in 2010 there was a building still standing and I think that was all that was left and now there's nothing but a field there now.

[@spencnaz]

Monday Night Football? Good music pun.

[@codetech6028]

God this stuff is fascinating! The military was working with computer hardware and software concepts that have only even been publicly available for the last few years. Gotta love the 20 MIPS computer complex...

[@codetech6028]

Are you actually this stupid, or just unable to read? My guess is both.

[@codetech6028]

Egitim Bilisim Agi lol - I love being called "retarded" by morons... it's like a badge of honor. Good luck with your reading classes at your EASL classes.

[@kunstsein]

What exactly is now publicly available that was only available to the MIC of the early 60s? I can't see in what other way your sentence could be understood, in regards to your high class debate with Egitim. Cheers

[@kunstsein]

Hardly. It's quite posh really.

[@ernststavroblofeld1961]

Why do all the missile launch men such grim faces? Nuclear missiles are fun. No sense of humour, those bigot colonial cowboys. Sad.

[@DoubleMrE]

That 'Sprint' missile is one fast son-of-a-bitch. ;)

It hauled one minute's worth of ass in 15 seconds.

[@DoubleMrE]

Hehe! --Well put. ;) :D

[@evonrn2000]

DoubleMrE I thought Russian Rockets were fast until I saw the old timer Sprint🚀 that ancient bird can fly.

[@Nighthawke70]

And nuclear-tipped. The technology back then was considered not to be accurate enough to hit the warhead physically so they armed Sprint with a neutron bomb. The theory was that the radiation flux would fry the RV and cause it to explode prematurely.

[@madtrade]

@frankhertler1 yeah and the enemy was from inside

[@non-human3072]

47:58 peace at the end of a button...

[@rdc121674]

I love the Monday Night Football music!! I wish that was still the music that they used. The garbage they have now sucks!!

[@scottgreenhaw9219]

rdc121674 That music was used as the theme for This Week In Baseball.

[@bryantbridgewaters7177]

They need to release a soundtrack of this music!!

[@orange70383]

Isn't the safeguard site the spot where supposed ufo's on several nights shut down launch sites across a wide area.

[@elsiejackson944]

Yes

[@stevespag9144]

I'm just realizing there are A LOT of videos about missile defence that are uploaded by AT&T. Excuse my ignorance, but how did AT&T play a role in the military development in these systems? It appears that they made a lot of contributions by the amount of videos uploaded on the topic.

[@YosemiteGuy]

nuclear armed interceptors create ionization that blinds tracking radars; if there is another way of icbm coming 1 min behind radars would not be able to track them and guide interceptors to them; this is a known problem for moscow missile defense system (both older version and more modern version)

[@johnburns2485]

So this could only track and intercept 8 targets at a time?

[@rudolphguarnacci197]

Man, those lapels could be used for propellers on the Titanic.

[@MatthewSuffidy]

43:47 Can the four faces really track on the edges? This may have been better off with a sphere shaped structure. I guess the radar was located on a relatively high ground location so it would not be blocked by mountains or other land...

[@jeffreygrove]

LOL, I've been there (my dad grew up 40 miles to the west) - it's flat as a pancake in that part of North Dakota, and the MSR building is up on an artificially constructed hill. The earth curves away from the site faster than any ground rises nearby. BTW, the pyramid is still there and probably will be for many centuries to come, given how robustly built it is (constructed to withstand all but a direct nuclear hit). Intercepts would almost certainly have happened using only the north-facing radar, since the main threat was ICBMs launched from the Soviet Union. Even if there were a 'blind' spot extending several miles from each corner, it wouldn't matter - at the intercept speeds you're talking about (approaching 10,000 mph if I recall correctly), those miles would be crossed by an incoming warhead in a tiny fraction of a second. Google tells me that warhead reentry speed was something like 4 miles per second(!).

[@MatthewSuffidy]

Thanks for the info. In theory you could launch an orbital strike backwards, but you'd need rockets designed for those tracks. My understanding is as you approach orbital speeds, those speeds are crazy like 4 miles per second. The atmosphere limits the speed at which things can travel, and entering the atmosphere automatically slows down an orbital projectile.

[@danbt5064]

Matthew Suffidy za

[@evanfinch4987]

Are you being serious bro? It's a phased array.

[@justdad53]

A 100% ABM system is probably not feasible or desirable. How would an adversary view or react to a rival who could hit but not be hit? The SM3 system located mainly on ships at sea now provides limited ABM capability, enough to react to minor players but not enough to cause the big boys to lose sleep. Intercepting multiple warheads traveling thousands of miles per hour is a tough job and to do consistently and on a large scale is even harder. The offense will probably always be ahead of the defense so agreement to minimize or eliminate the weapons by the owners seems to be a better path.

[@LuciusZedaker]

Weren't the seventies great!

[@LostAnFound]

8:22: Is that a metamaterial?

[@augustusomega4708]

Jeeze I've never heard the names of so many Greek Gods in 50 minutes! Should call your rockets Zeke and Enus and Mary Lou to make them more Murican

[@Woody2Shoe]

I've literally never known any Americans by those names.

[@musicmanfelipe]

16:38 - the Monday Night Football theme?

[@TheCheesyProductions]

wait, how did wirewrapping improve reliability over soldered joints? 8:55

[@evanfinch4987]

Vibration.

[@mytech6779]

This was before compact modern style circuit boards were common, so it would have been a spaghetti of single wires either way. Wire wrap is a specific process with specialized tools and components, not just somebody twisting wires together by hand. It is faster than soldering and for the worker simpler, leading to fewer mistaken connections do to the work flow, and the wrap tool has less chance for a poorly made connection than solder. The wire actually embeds into the corners of stationary posts(or post into the wire) at multiple points and retains some spring tension for mechanical robustness, and both parts are copper so there is no added corrosion issues and no thermocoupling voltage generated.

[@h.m.stanley]

this is one of those defense programs where ungodly sums of money were spent and no one knew anything about what was actually happening. It's scale I think was larger than the manhattan project itself.. It was HUGE and VERY expensive.

[@isukaman]

Notice the width of the lapels on his jacket.

[@dobiem1]

Probably with matching flares man! 70's style.

[@timmainson]

It takes a REAL man to make those work! XD XD XD

[@balazstorok9265]

isukaman omg, yisss

[@cat637d]

Then we had AT&T and IBM, now we have google and amazon, what an amazing failure of evolution!

[@unverifiedbiotic]

Well, as hardware got more efficient in terms of costs and performance a big part of their revenue was essentially gone. Google and Amazon provide services that people didn't even know they needed, creating and monopolizing their own niches. Since the world got saturated by networked computers, information processing and collection naturally the next big thing, which AT&T and IBM may have pioneered, but never capitalized on.

[@thetreblerebel]

What are you talking about.. AT&T is one of the biggest media and communication companies around today. IBM are still around, probably under AT&Ts umbrella. Theres still American companies making missles. So be proud

[@RCAvhstape]

@@thetreblerebel AT&T no longer has the impact it once did on the science and tech world. Bell Labs invented the transistor and so much other world-changing tech in the 40s-60s, tech which you are using right now as you read this, but lately AT&T are seen as just another service provider and Bell Labs itself is faded in prominence. I'm sure IBM is still doing heavy stuff but since they walked away from the PC market they are no longer in the public spotlight as they once were. GE ruined itself over the last two decades, RCA is long dead, Westinghouse is largely fragmented. The old aerospace big names have either gone under or merged into today's super giants, the Lockheed Martins, Boeings, and Northrop Grummans. Currently people look to younger companies like SpaceX for futuristic vision, unaware that some of the old giants are still out there and in some cases still quite potent innovators.

[@TikiShootah]

@@thetreblerebel IBM belongs to lenovo. Takes a guess which country own lenovo outright.

[@RCAvhstape]

@B00 050 He most certainly did not.

[@Charlesputnam-bn9zy]

5:56 4 miles/second = 14,400 miles/hour

[@randy109]

The Aerospace Facility where I have worked for over 35 years has had several big contracts in the ABM arena for decades. The mid 1980's "Star Wars" systems is what finally put the USSR out of business. Of course the Star Wars part of the deal was a lot of hoopla and much ado about nothing (or very little). We still do several million Dollars per year on work for the Missile Defense Agency's various programs. Sad that we really have accomplished very little in this field but most people believe we have a "shield" protecting us from ICBM's. If it makes people feel good then I guess we are getting something for our Billions of Dollars. Some day we might have a Missile Defense Shield that protects us but it might still be decades. The old ABM systems and even the treaties was more about Politics than about an actual, working system. But "someday" isn't "today". I'm very proud of most of the Weapons Systems I've worked on during these last three decades, but as for "Star Wars"?? It's kind of embarrassing really...

[@geezerdombroadcast]

no

[@randy109]

+Joe Smith Hey, I didn't say that our "Star Wars" systems worked because I doubt that they do even now, 25 years later. But if you were around at the time you wouldn't refute my statement. The Soviets really were scared of our ABM capabilities even if they turned out to be almost worthless. They simply went bankrupt and could no longer compete was my point.

[@PosthumousAddress]

+randy109 In the last few years some real advances have been made in missile reliability, and in the software necessary to make this kit work. The SM-3 is a good example of the kind of evolutionary development of ABM technology. Iron Dome shows we can make it work for short-range missiles, and THAAD and SM-3 work reasonably well for IRBMs. SM-3 Block II is said to be quite effective, and so I do think we are working our way to being able to consistently and reliably intercept ICBM warheads. Arrow 3's development is also advancing apace. It's true we were way off the goal in the 1980s and 1990s, but I think we're now starting to get there.

[@PosthumousAddress]

+randy109 And yes, it's true that with current technology we could not defend against an all-out Russian ICBM strike, but GMD could probably deal with a rogue ICBM launch

[@johnruuu]

I worked for an IV&V analysis firm in the 80's-90's that did a lot of analysis for ABM (and strategic weapons projects) on behalf of Special Projects Offices. Good stuff.

[@myriaddsystems]

Missle

[@CodeurChannel]

Hi👋, from 2022

[@carbidejones5076]

Insane era, everyone was so paranoid

[@jwenting]

and with good reason

[@petermallia558]

The beginning of NATO's ABM defense missiles systems program which now with the UK, Alaska and I think in Greenland all three having ICBM tracking and acquisitions radar installations, the UK installation is at RAF Fylingdales which also has US personnel on station there too. Facts; - - Royal Air Force Fylingdales or more simply RAF Fylingdales is a Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors, England. Its motto is "Vigilamus" (translates to "We are watching"). It is a radar base and is also part of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). Where do the operate from and which countries do they protect? (U) The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) detects, tracks, and provides tactical warning/attack assessment (TW/AA) of ballistic missiles launched against the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom. The BMEWS system consists of radars at RAF Fylingdales, UK; Clear, Alaska; and Thule AFB, Greenland.

[@rynqwan8270]

it's funny because AT&T put the video up here😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@fubaralakbar6800]

I can see why BMD was a very bad idea during the Cold War, for financial, technological, and political reasons. But today, it is sorely needed. In the 60s or 70s, a full-on nuclear attack would have sent thousands of warheads into the U.S. No BMD system could have stopped more than maybe 10% of them, let alone all of them. But In today's political environment, a rouge state like Iran or terrorist group like Al Qaeda would only be able launch one or two--well within the capability of BMD. A system like this could save every single targeted life. And of course, since Russia has no further interest in nuking the United States, they would have no such grounds to object to it today as they would have in 1960. Not to say that they wouldn't object, just that their arguments would be totally invalid.

[@fubaralakbar6800]

***** Well, you have to remember that deterrence was much more important at that time. People didn't know about BMD what we know now. The theory on both sides was that BMD could stop all the inbounds, and thus allow one side to strike without suffering retaliation. Now, that was a pretty silly idea (people had a a lot of silly ideas in the early nuclear age) considering, like I said, the large numbers of warheads and the limits of the technology. But consider India/Pakistan. The number of warheads on both sides is much smaller there. BMD on either side could take out 100% of an inbound strike from the other side. That creates a dangerous imbalance.

[@evanfinch4987]

Safeguard served its purpose as a political gambit. It was a technology demonstrator that shows we can build it, it works and we can build more if we want to, giving us significantly more leverage at the negotiating table for SALT.

[@KiloByte69]

SALT, now there was a very bad idea. Both sides arbitrarily limit their ability to build weaponry while China is left free to do as it pleases.

[@dale116dot7]

Russia still has a very large interest in nuking the USA. Their current leader continues to threaten this very thing.

[@fubaralakbar6800]

@@dale116dot7 They do now. But they didn't at the time I made the comment. In fact, I think Medvedev was still in power at that time.

[@Forensource]

MSR looks like PAVE PAWS.

[@twobeerandomland856]

Monday Night Football is playing why?

[@willmechling2537]

30:17 The leaders!!! ...Would that be the rich people? ...The ones who let him get away with treason I would think...?

[@scarakus]

17:39 it doesn't look like a success... cauz the icm was still inbound.

[@raymiles691]

Proximity Logic Employment

[@markbrisec3972]

Weapons development was always a problem for a democracy like the USA. We always had to be open to scrutiny, civilian oversight, Congress and we made little movies like this one where the significant portion of technology was spread on a table for our adversaries to observe, learn and gather information.. And things haven't improved in current times. When did you least hear that a Chinese missile test malfunctioned or the specific problems that SUkhoi is having in developing the SU-57? Not lately. But on the other hand our openness demands from our military to explain every secret test and what went wrong with it (if something did go wrong). Sure, we have black budgets through which we develop weapon systems that are classified and no data is shared with the generall public. But the majority of weapons are developed on front of the whole world to see. A bit of secrecy wouldn't be bad...

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

Look at how horribly Russian weapons are performing in Ukraine. That lack of oversight shows up as sloppy systems that only work in restrictive conditions, and whole branches of the military that don't work. Oversight provides a predatory evolutionary environment in through which systems evolve to become very effective.

[@mytech6779]

If you like their way of doing business then maybe move there, I hear they are in need of some extra hands lately. Seriously, it's all part of the bigger system, you can't eat your cake and have it too.

[@mikepodella]

So it saved the World Trade Center in downtown NYC, right?

[@jksynth]

It's on automatic payment

[@scarakus]

BMD or WMD, Both! lol "Whopper"

[@mtnshooter2487]

Nike.

[@phillipbatres6757]

Monday night football music while watching I.C.B.M missiles

[@ghostjohn2001]

"you actually need to fire more of them to kill just one missile"???....how does that statement make any sense to you? In reality, it would be one KKV per incoming missile....a 1 to 1 ratio, unless a pair of incoming missiles were close together.

[@caribman10]

If you look at the timeline presented here, we have spent billions and decades to have an absolutely minimal missile defense against ICBM's. We would have been just as good filling those silos in Alaska with $100 bills. The US has NO practical BMD and never did. Period.

[@anonimojose6551]

Minuto 7:00

[@Thex-W.I.T.C.H.-xMaster]

I think they shutdown this place in the early 80's 🤔.

[@jksynth]

My bill is due tomorrow not today

[@cyronader]

at&t????? what is Mabell doing with these military films?

[@desktorp]

All of the major electronics companies are military contractors. The internet was created by the military.

[@thetreblerebel]

Built a city in the middle of nowhere Pacific ocean