CHILD'S GUIDE TO GUIDED MISSILES
ONDAY'S effort by the Government to reassure the public about the guided missile situation in this country received a singularly good press. Most papers carried reports of the official visit to Farnborough. The idea of an atomic weapons system was hailed as news and the Research Test Vehicles and General Purpose Vehicles which are being used to develop such things as control and guidance were treated as if they were remarkable inventions. No newspaper recalled that this hard- ware and the films that went with it were on view at the Royal Aircraft Establishment jubilee celebrations in July. Nobody let it out that electronic data processing systems have been a subject of free discussion in technical publications for years and that SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) has been described in detail. In short the newspapers responded to a few sketchy statements of the elemental and the obvious with wide- eyed admiration and astonishment. An official photograph showing a strike on a target aircraft was widely reproduced although it bore unmistakable evidence of heavy retouching with an air brush. Informed critics of our guided missile pro- grammes and performances will need something more adult to Convince them that all is well.
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