MISSILE DEVELOPMENT AND SPACE SCIENCES

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS,

Washington, D.C., Tuesday, February 3, 1959.

The committee met at 10 a.m., in room 219, Old House Office Building, Hon. Overton Brooks, chairman, presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order.

This morning we are going to hear from the Air Force and we have the privilege the first thing this morning, gentlemen of the committee, to hear from the distinguished Chief of Staff of the Air Force, an able witness, a fine gentleman, and a great military leader, who has followed the program that we have under study all the way through. I refer to Gen. Thomas D. White.

General White, I think we have a formal statement to hear from you and if you wish to proceed with this statement we will be glad to have it.

General WHITE. Very good, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Proceed with your statement, General White.

STATEMENT OF GEN. THOMAS D. WHITE, CHIEF OF STAFF, U.S. AIR

FORCE

General WHITE. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I welcome this opportunity to discuss with you the subjects under consideration by this committee today. They are subjects which are not only extremely vital to the Air Force as we advance deeper into aerospace but which are uppermost in all of our minds these days as a matter of utmost national emergency.

The President has stated that we and other nations have a great responsibility to promote the peaceful use of space and to utilize the new knowledge obtainable from space science and technology for the benefit of all mankind. This is the overwhelming desire of all of us. Moreover, it is with this basic premise in mind that the Air Force appears before you today and all witnesses in giving their replies and testimony have the intent to testify within this statement of policy. However, until effective measures to this end are assured, the capability of the free world to operate freely and purposefully in

space will depend upon a strong and capable deterrent aerospace force.

Aerospace is a term which may be unfamiliar to some of you. Since you will hear it several times during the course of our presentations, I would like to define it for the committee at this time. The Air Force has operated throughout its relatively short history in the sensible atmosphere around the earth. Recent developments have allowed us to extend our operations further away from the earth, approaching the environment popularly referred to as space. Since there is no dividing line, no natural barrier separating these two areas, there can be no operational boundary between them. Thus air and space comprise a single continuous operational field in which the Air Force must continue to function. This area is aerospace. The major military threat which faces our Nation today lies in Soviet aerospace power, even though at the moment this power is expressed in terms of aircraft and ballistic missiles. The primary military deterrent which has contained this threat and which has precluded it from developing into catastrophic reality is U.S. aerospace power. This has been true for the past 10 years with our conventional and early jet fighters and bombers. I am convinced that it will continue to be true as we operate with improved jet aircraft, missiles, and eventually spacecraft and satellites. The decisive weapons of the future will be aerospace weapons. That nation or group of nations which maintains predominance in this area, not only in its military forces, but also in its laboratories, in its industries, and in its technology, will possess the means of survival.

In any new program-and the space efforts of this country are relatively young-it is often difficult to separate basic scientific research from military potential. Never in history has this delineation been more difficult and yet more critical than in this era of limitless scientific expansion. Proper definition of this problem is one of the most imposing responsibilities resting with those who must guide our national space effort to its proper goals. It is our thought in the Air Force that there is at this point in time little, if anything, in the area of basic space research, which may not have some degree of military application. We are interested in the machines to get us into space. We are interested in the problems facing man in space and we must obtain answers to many other related questions before a firm military capability can be established in space.

In the early stages of this program, our scientific and military interests will in many cases be synonymous and simultaneous. This being the case, extreme caution must be exercised in areas wherein basic research might be mistakenly separated from urgent military requirements to the detriment of those military requirements. In these critical days the practical use of space knowledge must be considered

primarily from the standpoint of their application toward the security of this Nation and of the free world-until such time as the use of space for peaceful purposes is assured.

The exploration and exploitation of space is an expensive program in money, resources, and effort. It is also a critical program from the standpoint of time when we consider the threat which faces us. Strong control and tight coordination are needed to acquire the space posture which we must have and at the time we must have it. Our national space program must be comprehensive in scope and must closely coordinate the full potential of our national resources if it is to meet effectively the challenge of world leadership in this field. The policies and programs of the Air Force reflect these national objectives.

At this stage of our growth in space technology, requirements and their implementing developments must move at an extremely rapid pace if we are to meet the urgent military and scientific threats which face us today and which we know will face us tomorrow. We must remain fully sensitive at all times to the impact that space technology's swift advance will have upon aerospace systems and operations and we must be able to move with speed, purpose, and directness to exploit these advances. There is no question in my mind that we have the ability to attain our goals in space nor that we will attain them provided that we keep clearly in sight and remain constantly aware of the dangerous detours through which duplication, indecision, and diffusion can lead us.

In closing, I would like to emphasize that our defense posture must be measured at all times against our entire aerospace capability and it must be computed against its capacity to accomplish the mission assigned to it. Total aerospace power includes manned and unmanned air-breathing vehicles, spacecraft, and satellites and ballistic missiles. Each weapons system supplies a definite and unique contribution to our overall defense capability and each is judged by its performance in relation to the whole. The value of one cannot be properly computed except in context and in conjunction with the contributions of the others.

We have prepared detailed presentations for you concerning the space program as it affects the Air Force mission. First, Lieutenant General Anderson, commander of the Air Research and Development Command, will discuss the organization of the Air Force as it particularly pertains to our space effort. He will be followed by Major General Schriever, commander of the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division, who will brief you on the intercontinental ballistic missile program.

Following their presentations, we will be happy to answer your questions on this portion of the overall briefing. I will then turn the briefing over to Brigadier General Boushey, the Director of Advanced Technology, in Headquarters U.S. Air Force, who will carry on with a detailed discussion of Air Force space projects and capabilities.

Our presentations today will be divided into two sections, the first being unclassified, followed by classified sections of the briefings. I would now like to present Lieutenant General Anderson.

The CHAIRMAN. The classified sections of the briefing will be at the end?

General WHITE. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. So everybody can remain for the open session. I want to ask you one question before you present General Anderson, if I may: In your mind, in your position as Chief of Staff of the Air Force, how vital do you feel that the successful prosecution of this program of aerospace is to the security and preservation of the United States of America? It is a general question which a great many of our people ask us.

General WHITE. Well, it is my personal and considered view that the move forward into space is perhaps even more important than in 1903 when the aircraft first came on the horizon. None of us dreamt what aviation was going to do to civilization, and I think the same on an expanded scale can be said about space, perhaps in proportion as the one exists to the other relative to the size of

space.

The CHAIRMAN. Now you being a military man or an airman, with your feet on the ground, and realizing what is fundamental to the defense of the Nation, would you say that this program of conquering the aerospace is one that we appreciate the importance of, as a people, and as a military organization that we are determined to pursue?

General WHITE. I think that the public imagination is being caught by this. I am not sure that they are fully educated. I think that is a matter of time. I thought it was years before the public was educated to the potentialities of aviation. I think the same thing will occur in space. I think that the military aspects of this thing are being thought through. It must be recognized that there is a great deal that we do not know. But we are trying to keep abreast of it. I think that we are today.

The CHAIRMAN. One more question: Are you satisfied with the effort that we are putting behind this program from a security viewpoint at this time?

General WHITE. Well, we in the Air Force, and I think all of the military services, always want to see technology move faster because we realize that it is from the area of new developments that our lifeblood stems. On that basis alone I would say that I would always like to see things move faster. There are limitations, technological facilitieswise, which have a bearing; but I think we are well on our way. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, General.

Now my thought this morning, in order to get through the witnesses, because we were not able to finish yesterday, would be to recognize Mr. McCormack, majority leader, and Mr. Fulton, minority leader on the committee, and then throw the thing open to any urgent questions and then proceed with the next witness, if that is satisfactory with the committee. If it is, I will recognize Mr. McCormack.

Mr. McCORMACK. General, on the light side still, the matter that I would like to get information about, because the word "aerospace" is something new to me and I know that has significance from the Air Force angle, where was that coined?