ABM Systems for Cold War Western Europe?

Delta Force

Banned
During the 1950s and early 1960s, the United Kingdom was working on an anti-ballistic missile system known as Violet Friend. There isn't very much information available on Violet Friend (most information is in this thread on Secret Projects Forum), but it seems that an ABM system in general would have had great promise for defending Western Europe against missile attack. NATO had a major geographic advantage against the Soviets during the Cold War, and one is that they were so close to the Soviet Union. While that does make them more vulnerable to attack by bombers and theater range ballistic missiles, those systems are much easier to defend against than the higher flying and faster intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Could there have been an opening in the 1960s for a Western European ABM system, perhaps being undertaken instead of or following the cancellation of the NATO Multilateral Force and Skybolt?
 

Delta Force

Banned
Could some of the naval ABM programs developed in the 1950s and 1960s be used to help develop a land based system? A land based system would be able to relax many of the space and power consumption limitations the naval systems faced, and would also benefit from having to defend against attack from more specified directions. SLBM attacks can of course come from any direction, but land and air launched missiles are more likely to come from predictable directions in a strategic national defense situation.
 

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
TBH.

This is post 1980 though!

If NATO nations had a full order of battle of Pershing 1A's then 2B's with Tomahawk GLCM's, it would negate the ability of the USSR to have a 1st strike capability at Western Europe up to the late 1980's.

This is why the USSR put all their Tactical Nuclear arsenal on the table for the START II talks despite having a 5 to 1 advantage as they didn't have the capability to pre-empt a NATO first strike with the defence's they had, especially with their limited AWAC's systems mounted on converted "Bear" air frame to track GLCM's etc.

Why waste money on an ABM system when you can put the fear of god into the Soviet regime just by basing Pershing & Tomahawks in Europe. It's much cheaper.

I hope this has helped

Regards filer
 

Delta Force

Banned
Why waste money?
Because accidents can happen.

In the 1960s NATO had a huge lead over the Soviets in nuclear weapons. There was talk of the United States pursuing a defensive program, but President Kennedy decided to go for nuclear parity.

It's worth noting that the situation in Europe might not have even required using nuclear warheads for defensive interceptors. As mentioned, theater range missiles are much easier to intercept. Thus, a European ABM system could reduce pressure on systems defending North America without even requiring nuclear warheads to be used.
 
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