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dated October 30, 1953: New Defence against A-Bomb

Editorial: Our Australian correspondent has described the feelings of ordinary people over the British atomic tests on the Woomera Range which is dangerously near a vast reservation for Australian aboriginals. But it would be a mistake to think that Britain has concentrated only on the production of atomic bombs. In a recent broadcast, Mr. Charles Gardner gave details of new defensive atomic weapons. Americans and Russians have been doing much work on the V 2 missile Germans used during the last war. A guided atomic bomb would be terribly effective; but, fortunately it is not yet a factor to reckon with. At present a jet bomber has to deliver the bomb; defensive measures are, therefore, concerned with means to intercept the modern supersonic bomber in flight. The British have developed a type of guided rockets which, according to Mr. Duncan Sandys, Minister of Supply, no humanly piloted plane can out-manoeuvre. These rockets are capable of high-speed twists and turns, creating such intense strains and pressure as neither the human body nor the wings of any aircraft could withstand. The defensive rockets are of two kinds; those guided by a radar beam from the ground, and "homing" rockets directed by their own electronic brain. The homing rocket, says Mr. Gardner, locks its guidance mechanism on to the enemy aeroplane as soon as it leaves the ground, and is automatically steered towards it. These rockets can tackle bombers flying faster than sound, and over 50,000 feet up, despite rain or darkness. Such defensive weapons should prove highly effective against bombers of the latest type, and we may draw the conclusion that, when these rockets are actually in production, defensive weapons will have superiority over offensive armoury. In an atomic war, there can be no margin of error for the defence, because a single bomber that gets through the defence network can do more damage than a whole armada of pre-atomic bombers. The British are confident that, with their new rockets, they have mastered the problem of defence — against piloted bombers at any rate. Mr. Gardner is not complacent, but he says that while the pure push-button era of atomic bombing might be the next stage, he has not met anyone who thought of it except as a long-term project. That is some consolation.

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