A 13 September letter from Maj.

Gen.

Whisenand of Systems Command

OT

Headquarters to Gen. McCorkle notes current discussions between the
two organizations on the Soviets testing and their intents to test very high
yield weapons.

Bz

Systems Command Headquarters asks AFSWC to prepare

a study in accordance with an attached outline which generally will be a
study of large yield weapons and will examine potential Air Force requirements
for weapons in the 60 to 100 megaton range and will cover the weapons effects,
delivery systems,

test requirements,

etc.

There is a lot of correspondence in this period between Command Headquarters
and Headquarters Air Force and the lower level units such as AFSWC,

Ballistic Systems Division, OAR,

etc.,

addressing various meetings and

studies to put together the Air Force requirements for testing as well as
the Air Force capabilities for testing in various iterations.

Of particular

interest is the very early (as early as 8 September) stress from Ballistic
Systems Division to higher Headquarters that the nations ballistic missiles
be tested in the Test Serie whatever it might be.
MINUTEMAN,
effects tests,

Specifically,

for the

TITAN, and ATLAS systems, warhead proof tests, weapons
and full-scale systems tests are all stressed for possible

testing in the future. Specific tests to look at the problems of ground shock
and structural dynamics,

and ™MP shiclding arc also urged by BSD.

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