<text id=00he2207><title>Funds for Strategic Weapons</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Funds for Strategic Weapons</hdr><body>
<p>As the 1980s unfolded, Congressional support was forthcoming for the very public B-1B and the very secret B-2 bomber, for the MX Peacekeeper ICBM, and for a ballistic missile defense dubbed 'Star Wars' by some. The USAF got the go-ahead for advanced cruise missiles. Some in the White House and Pentagon put forth an idea which the US had never previously accepted, i.e. that a nuclear war could be fought and won. The Pentagon's top brass revised the SIOP (Single Integrated Operations Plan) which determined how all US nuclear forces would be employed against all Soviet targets, making it a 'restaurant menu' with a variety of options. Once a piece of paper, the SIOP became computer software. It included options for missile and bomber attacks on Soviet targets which, under some circumstances, could be made in a first strike rather than in retaliation.
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<p>The MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle), the ABM (anti-ballistic missile) and the particle beam weapon received plenty of attention from US planners. The wherewithal to fight small wars in the Third World did not.
