The development of a ballistic missile defense system has become a key challenge for our defense community. The administration has committed the country to putting a system in place to defend the US (and its allies) from ballistic missile attack: the debate centers on how best to do it.

Boost phase intercept is an approach that has garnered a great deal of attention as a key component of a missile defense system. We will be examining the utility and feasibility of boost phase intercept for the defense of the United States. You may have seen the recent article in the Washington Post reporting on the release of the results of a major study by the American Physical Society on this topic.

We have two superbly qualified speakers to frame this important issue for us, Dr. Frederick K. Lamb and Dr. Richard L. Garwin.

Dr. Lamb co-chaired the American Physical Society study. Dr. Garwin is one of the originators of the concept of ground- and sea-based boost-phase interception of ICBMs, and will provide a usefully different point of view.

Dr. Lamb earned a D. Phil. in theoretical physics from Oxford University in 1970. He became professor of physics at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign in 1978 and professor of astronomy in 1980. His research has focused on problems in high-energy and relativistic astrophysics including neutron stars, pulsars, X-ray stars, and black holes. He has served as a consultant to the Departments of Defense and Energy, the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and to the U.S. Congress on defense security, and space policy activities, primarily in the area of monitoring nuclear test explosions.

Dr. Garwin received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1949 where he was a student of Enrico Fermi. He has been Director of the IBM Watson Laboratory, Director of Applied Research at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and a member of the IBM Corporate Technical Committee. He is now Philip D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York and IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He has made key contributions in the design of nuclear weapons, in instruments and electronics for research in nuclear and low-temperature physics, in computer elements and systems, including superconducting devices, in communication systems, in the detection of gravitational radiation, and in military technology. Dr. Garwin served on the "Rumsfeld" Commision to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States.

The following documents were prepared by the speakers as their presentations for this luncheon. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy of the United States Government.

Presentation of Dr. Frederick K. Lamb (PDF, 1.51MB)

Article by Dr. Richard L. Garwin (PDF, 97.6KB)