Larger context for LACK in Corpus USbrown_UKbncw/US_brown.txt
We would have the means to seek out and destroy the enemy's force- whether it were fixed or mobile.
With such a force of manned bombers we could bring enormous pressure to bear on an enemy, and this pressure would be selective and extremely discriminating.
No need to kill an entire city and all its people because we lacked the precision and reconnaissance to selectively disarm the enemy's military force.
Our first necessity, at the very outset of war, is post-attack reconnaissance.
In a few years we will have SAMOS (semiautomatic missile observation system).
But in the case of moving targets, and targets which have limited mobility, what will their location be when it is time to destroy them?
What targets have we successfully knocked out?
A ballistic missile cannot, today, tell you if it was successful or unsuccessful.
What targets still remain to be hit?
These crucial questions must be answered by post-attack reconnaissance.
SAMOS will be hard put to see through clouds- and to see in the dark.
Even if this is some day possible, there remains the 30-minute time of flight of a missile to its overseas target.
If the target can change its position significantly during the 30 minutes the missile is in the air on its way, the probability of the missile destroying the target is drastically reduced.