Evening star., 1953-10-11
Fantastic but True

Although wall Of secrecy has been drawn
around their development and production, there
can be little or no doubt that guided missiles
for both defensive and offensive purposeS-are
swiftly coming into their own, bringing with
them grim and revolutionary new concepts of
warfare on land at sea and in the sky.
The actual and potential Importance of
these weapons can scarcely be exaggerated.
Sir Frank S. Spriggs and Sir Frank HeadS-two
of Britain's leading air experts-were not play
ing the role of Buck Rogers when they described
them here the other day to the Aviation
Writer'S Association. Both men were soberly
factual. They stated it simply as a truth that
some Of the missiles are available right now
that they provide the means of delivering ter
rible destruction to an enemy faster than any
one has dreamed Of" and that they are $50
utterly fantastic that they stagger the i'm
agination."
In saying this, the two Sir Franks presum-
ably were referring only to what Britain has
developed, but their remarks were similar to
those that American experts have made from
time to time regarding our own .country's work
in the same field. We can be reasonably sure
that it has been successful work. At any rate,
when he resigned last month as director of the
Defense Departments Office of Guided Missiles,
K. T. Keller-board chairman of the Chrysler
Corporation-Strongly indicated that these
fearsome new weapons were being rapidly added
to our arsenal, with several" types already in
production, others relatively far advanced
through the evaluation phase, and some in the
early stages of research"
Despite the fact that the tightest kind of
security restrictions apply to them, enough Off
cial information has been let out to make clear
that our American guided missiles include those
designed for defensive action against attacking
bombers and those meant for offensive use by
all three OF our armed services. Weapons of
incredible Supersonic speed, they are equipped
with things like radar control, homing devices
and proximity fuses to make their destructive
ness marvelously accurate. Although their
ranges may be limited today, it is at least con-
ceivable that one of them will eventually be
developed-perhaps in the relatively near future
into virtually uninterceptable intercontinen-
tai rocket capable of flying thousands of miles
an hour, without deviating from its course, to
deliver it's atomic warhead Cor possibly hydro
gen bombl to an enemy target anywhere in the
world tt,
When and if that day comes, of course,
giant strategic bonbers like the B36 will be
mere museum pieces. In fact, as many experts
see it, the progressive development of all types
of guided nliSSiles-including possibly space
platforms or earth satellite VehlcleS"-lS GER
tain in due course, to make air power, as we
know it now, as obsolete as an old whaling
ship, and the same holds true in numerous
respects for armies and navieS. In short, poten-
TALLY at least guided missiles promise-or
threaten-to revolutionize warfare in such a
way that the civilized world if it cannot estab-
Ish good and enduring peace, may destroy
itself in nightmare of universal annihilation
1t is not hyperbole to say this. It is not
lurid. We are all of us living in an age when
guided missiles are by no means the only utterly
fantastic" weapons. Nor are they weapons
possessed by the free alone, but by the Red
totalitarianS as well. That is what has plunged
our world into the deadliest ornaments race of
all time, and unless man is equal to the task
OF ending it, it is race that may well end him.