<p>But a paradox evolved. The Soviets were farther behind in the development of their ICBM force than the US understood. Once the US decided to cap the size of its missile force at 1,050 land-based ICBMs rather than growing without limits, Moscow was handed a measurable target against which to compete. The Soviets breathed a sigh of relief over the 1,050 figure, decided to match it, and began hardening missile silos beginning with the SS-11 of the mid-1960s. Soviet documents prove that Moscow believed, even though Washington never did, that nuclear war was 'thinkable'. One side, as the Soviets saw it, could wage an atomic war and win.
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<p>The bomber, the ICBM, and to an extent the air defense of North America were officially no longer part of a 'numbers' contest. Yet they were. And they enjoyed priority. It took only a flick of the pen to cancel an armed, 'counter-insurgency' version of the Air Force's primary jet trainer, the Cessna YAT-37D (although a follow-up version, the A-37, came along years later). It was far more difficult, and was done against strong arguments, to close the B-52 production line when the 744th and last Stratofortress, ordered in 1962, was delivered to SAC.
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<p>Air Staff officers in the Pentagon had successfully quashed the ill-advised US Navy attempt to make carrier-based nuclear bombers a part of the nation's strategic forces, and they faced little opposition as they continued to push the manned bomber and the strategic missile, often at the expense of weapons designed for the dirty little brushfire wars flaring up around the globe, when making their wishes known to budget makers on Capitol Hill.
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<p>Strategic Air Command no longer had as many people or aircraft as in the previous decade, but at the end of 1963 SAC still boasted 271,672 men and 2,424 warplanes, including no fewer than 32 heavy bomb wings and three heavy aerospace wings equipped with the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Apart from its reconnaissance assets and two medium bomb wings with the Convair B-58 Hustler, SAC also possessed 41 heavy air refueling squadrons, nearly all equipped with the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker.
