The material which follows comprises the major portion of a book-length study prepared in 1984 for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden. It was written as a background study for a report that was to have been released by the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General in 1984 or 1985 on “Military Research and Development”. However, that report was never released because of disagreements, which are explained below, between the US and the Soviet members of an empanelled UN experts group. All the material included here is presented as it was originally written in 1984. It has not been updated or revised in any way.
The study of some 450 pages includes an Introduction on the role of scientific research in weapon development, four case studies, and a concluding summary chapter, which introduces arms-control issues. The four case studies are:
1. The History of the Development of United States Anti-Satellite Weapons Systems (ASAT);
2. Weather Modification: The Evolution of an R&D Program into a Weapon System
3. The Origins of Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs) for ICBMs and SLBMs
4. Research and Development in (C)BW: “Basic” versus “Applied” Research, “Civil” versus
“Military,” and “Offensive” versus “Defensive”
The Introductory Chapter: The Relation of Scientific Research to Weapons Development – Text and Extensive Tables
The purpose of the opening chapter is to explain exactly what Military R&D is and how it works.
School Authors: Milton Leitenberg