Words And Arms: A Dictionary Of Security And Defense Terms

With Supplementary Data

Wolfram F Hanrieder

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000011494
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

This comprehensive dictionary of terms frequently used in discussions of national security and defense policy contains approximately 800 entries on weapons systems, strategy concepts, military organization, and related items. Part 2 presents a more extensive treatment of such concepts as strategic force doctrine and deployment, Soviet and U.S. poli

Part 1
Terms and Definitions

A

A-6: Navy and Marine Corps night or bad weather attack aircraft.

A-7: Navy and Air Force attack aircraft.

A-10: Air Force attack aircraft designed mainly for close air support.

ABM (Antiballistic Missile/Interceptor Missile): A defensive missile designed to intercept and destroy a strategic offensive ballistic missile or its payload. This term is used interchangeably with “ballistic missile defense interceptor missile.” ABM interceptor missiles are generally divided into three classes: (1) those which attempt to destroy attacking missiles very early in their flight and before the attacking missiles deploy penetration aids; (2) those which attempt to destroy attacking ballistic missiles at relatively long range outside the atmosphere; and (3) those which attempt to destroy attacking missiles at relatively short range in the atmosphere (terminal interceptors). All Soviet ABM (Galosh) interceptor missiles employ nuclear warheads. However, all ABMs are not interceptors; some are area-type weapons.

The deactivated Safeguard ABM system utilized two types of interceptor missiles: Spartan and Sprint. Spartan was a long-range, 55-foot, three-stage missile launched from an underground silo and intended to destroy or disable attacking missiles beyond the atmosphere. Sprint was a shorter-range, 27-foot, two-stage missile launched from an underground silo and intended for terminal defense against reentry vehicles in the atmosphere.

Absolute Dud: A nuclear weapon that fails to explode when launched at or emplaced on a target.

Absolute Weapon: A weapons system of such theoretically total and final effect that it is likely to prevent any type of war.

Absorbed Dose: The amount of energy imparted by nuclear (or ionizing) radiation to unit mass of absorbing material. The unit is the rad.

Absorber: Neutron absorbers like boron and cadmium, which are used in control rods for reactors, that absorb the intensity of ionizing radiation.

Acceleration Error: An error caused by the deflection of the vertical reference as a result of any change in aircraft velocity.

Accidental Attack: An unintended attack that occurs without deliberate national design as a direct result of a random event such as a mechanical failure, a simple human error, or an unauthorized action by a subordinate.

Ace High System: The first modern military communications capability, established in the 1960s when SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) installed the Ace High Troop-scatter System, providing high capacity microwave voice and telegraph circuits throughout the area of Allied Command Europe, from the northern tip of Norway through central Europe and the Mediterranean to the eastern part of Turkey.

Acheson-Lilienthal Report: See Baruch Plan.

Active Air Defense: Direct defensive action taken to destroy attacking enemy aircraft or missiles or to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of such attack. It includes such measures as the use of aircraft, interceptor missiles, air defense artillery, non-air defense weapons in an air defense role, and electronic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures.

Active Defense: The employment of limited offensive action and counterattacks to deny a contested area or position to the enemy.

Active Deterrence: Strategic threat designed to deter enemy aggression against the friends and allies of a nuclear power and the military forces of that power stationed abroad.

Active Electronic Countermeasures: Electronic countermeasures that involve active, detectable emissions; for example, jamming (the deliberate radiating or re-radiating of electronic signals to obliterate or obscure signals the enemy is attempting to receive) and deception (the deliberate radiating or re-radiating of electronic signals to mislead the enemy in his interpretation of signals received by his electronic equipment).

Active Material: Materials like plutonium and certain isotopes of uranium that are capable of supporting a fission chain reaction.

Advanced Base: A base located in or near a theater of operations whose primary mission is to support military operations.

Advanced Fleet Anchorage: A secure anchorage for a large number of naval vessels, mobile support units, and auxiliaries located in or near a theater of operation.

Aegis: A Navy air defense system that represents a major improvement in the intermediate or area defense element of the defense-in-depth system that protects aircraft carriers. It is geared to defend against saturation attacks of the kind that are likely to take place when U.S. naval forces enter areas near the Soviet Union in order to project U.S. power ashore.

Aegis is an integrated group of systems for tracking (SPY-1 radar), weapons direction (MK-12 system), launching (MK-99 launcher), and fire control and target illumination (MK-99 fire control system, MK-90/MK-91 radars). It utilizes the medium-range version of the Standard Missile 2 (SM2/ER), a semiactive missile that relies on a radar illuminator to track a target and uses the reflected signals for homing guidance. The system also includes devices that monitor operational readiness of the various units. Aegis has good jamming resistance capability and can track and target a number of antiship missiles or planes simultaneously. Its integrated computer-linked network allows it to respond quickly to detected targets and enables it to control the firing of Harpoon antiship missiles and antisubmarine rockets, as well as standard missiles.

Aerodynamic Missile: A missile that uses aerodynamic forces to maintain its flight path, generally employing propulsion guidance. See also ballistic missile.

Aerospace Defense: A term encompassing all measures used to intercept, destroy, or otherwise neutralize hostile aircraft, missiles, and space vehicles. See also air defense; antiballistic missile defense.

Afterburning: 1. The characteristic of some rocket motors to burn irregularly for sometime after the main burning and thrust has ceased. 2. The process of fuel injection and combustion in the exhaust jet of a turbojet engine (aft or to the rear of the turbine).

Aggression: The first use of armed force to satisfy political, economic, or social aims.

Ailleret Doctrine: Late in 1967, General Charles Ailleret enunciated an “all-points” (or all-horizons, all-azimuths) deterrence posture for France that he justified on the grounds that by fashioning a threat of nuclear retaliation against any target on the globe, France could avoid involvement in conflicts among nuclear superpowers and hence establish and maintain independence of action toward them. This posture, revised in the Fourquet Plan of 1968, was to be implemented with a quantity of intercontinental ballistic missiles and an “omnidirectional” thermonuclear strategic force, capable of a link-up with a future military outer-space force.

Air Alert: The operational status of airborne aircraft that are ready for immediate accomplishment of a mission.

Air Attack: 1. Coordinated: A combination of two or more types of air attack (dive, glide, low-level) in one strike, using one or more types of aircraft. 2. Deferred: A procedure in which attack groups rendezvous as a single unit; used when attack groups are launched from more than one station with their departure on the mission being delayed pending further orders. 3. Divided: A method of delivering a coordinated air attack that consists of holding the units in close tactical concentration up to a point. Airborne Early Warning: The detection of enemy air or surface units by radar or other equipment carried in an airborne vehicle and the transmission of a warning to friendly units.

Airborne Early Warning and Control: Air surveillance and control provided by airborne early warning vehicles that are equipped with search and height-finding radar and communications equipment for controlling weapons. See also AW ACS (Airborne Warning and Control System).

Airborne Forces, Operations: Ground combat and airlift forces designed primarily to conduct parachute or other type air assaults that open up new areas of operation; the employment of such forces in combat. See also airmobile forces, operations.

Air-breathing Missile: A missile with an engine requiring the intake of air for combustion of its fuel like a ramjet or turbojet. To be contrasted with the rocket missile, which carries its own oxidizer and operates beyond the atmosphere. See also cruise missile.

Airburst: 1. An explosion of a bomb or projectile above the surface as distinguished from an explosion on contact with the surface or after penetration. 2. The explosion of a nuclear weapon in the air at a height greater than the maximum radius of the fireball.

Air Defense: Measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of an attack by aircraft or guided missiles after they are airborne.

Air Defense Action Area: An area and the airspace above it within which friendly aircraft or surface-to-air weapons are normally given precedence in operations except under specified conditions.

Air Defense Area: 1. Overseas: A specifically defined airspace for which air defense must be planned and provided. 2. United States: Airspace of defined dimensions within which ready control of airborne vehicles is required in the interest of national security during an air defense emergency.

Air Defense Artillery (ADA): Weapons for engaging air targets from the ground, including guns and surface-to-air missiles and support equipment.

Airhead: 1. A designated area in a hostile or threatened territory that, when seized and held, ensures the continuous air landing of troops and materiel and provides the maneuver space necessary for projected operations. Normally it is the area seized in the assault phase of an airborne operation. 2. A designated location in an area of operations used as a base for supply and evacuation by air.

Air Interception: The visual or electronic contact of a friendly aircraft with another aircraft. Normally the air interception is conducted in the following five phases: (1) climb phase: airborne to cruising altitude; (2) maneuver phase: receipt of initial vector to target until beginning transition to attack speed and altitude; (3) transition phase: increase or decrease of speed and altitude required for the attack; (4) attack phase: turn to attack heading, acquisition of target, completion of attack and turn to breakaway heading; and (5) recovery phase: breakaway to landing. See also close-controlled air interception.

Air Interdiction: Air operations conducted to destroy, neutralize, or delay the enemy’s military potential before it can be brought to bear effectively against friendly forces. These operations are conducted at such distance from friendly forces that integration of air missions with friendly forces is not required.

Air-launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM): Any ballistic missile transported by and launched from land, sea-based aircraft, or lighter-than-air conveyances, such as blimps, balloons, and dirigibles.

Air-launched Cruise Missile (ALCM): A cruise missile designed to be launched from an aircraft. ALCMs approximately 168 to 190 inches in length could be launched from a variety of platforms: Boeing 747s, Galaxy Transports (C5A), LTV Aerospace A-7, Navy S-3As and P3Cs, and from sh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Part 1 Terms and Definitions
• Part 2 Policy Concepts
• Part 3 Statistical Information
• References