Implications of Third World Acquisition and Employment of Ballistic Missiles and Space Launch Vehicles for SDIO/POET

This document, prepared for the Director of the Countermeasures Office of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) and the Threat Working Group of the Phase One Engineering Team (POET), presents five separate discussions on how the Third World militaries might acquire, produce, employ, and defend against ballistic missiles. The first study establishes a context for how Third World countries might acquire ballistic missiles. The second study then expands on one particular strategy: indigenous production of ballistic missiles. The third and fourth studies examine how Third World countries, once they acquire ballistic missiles, might employ them in their various regional contexts and what lessons might be drawn from their real world operational use in the Gulf War. Finally, the last study examines the implications of the widespread proliferation of ballistic missile defense systems and what they portend for future Third World ballistic missile systems in various regional contexts. These studies demonstrate how Third World countries plan to utilize their ballistic missile inventories once acquired and how SDIO/POET might anticipate such activities in designing/operating national and theater missile defense systems.