What I said was discussed in Cabinet and in the Pentagon. It did violate strategic arms limitations in its program development as an eventual anti-missile aircraft.
Also, the Arrow, taking off in Germany, could reach Moscow and fly back into Turkey with ease. The Starfighter was based there, and it could make the trip there and back, so the Arrow with its superior range of 5 hours had to be able to. The Arrow could do Mach 2 at sea level, and that is 1500 MPH. I don't think there is an American fighter today that can do that sort of speed in a dense atmosphere. Most cannot break mach 1 until they are at 30,000 feet.
The Bomarc which was sort of an ancestor of the cruise, was flown by wire as well, and could very well have had an anti-missile component, but was sold as an anti-backfire bomber, and theatre defense weapon. The Nike was definitely anti-bomber, but was also very effective as a Scud-range ground attack weapon (although 20 times more accurate with over the horizon radar), and being vane/rocket steered but basically pure ballistic, near-space capable, it had the possibility as well of being used for incoming missiles. It had 2500 pound of HE, and was fast enough to get up to where it mattered. The Bomarc looked all cruise-atmosphere type and had enormous range for a light rocket, as it flew, it was not purely ballistic, but with its short stubby wings and low area, very nearly so. Despite this, it was capable of very high speed, and like the X-1 which was positively snail-like in comparison, it could do near space. I have long speculated that the Bomarc was a near-space anti-missile missile aimed at getting ICBM's on re-entry and the antibomber role was just a cover story. After all, why have all those fighters in Cold Lake designed to attack Backfires if they used Bomarcs, 1500 miles away to do the job too? The story was the Bomarcs would force the Backfires to fly in a straight line towards their targets at White, NBay, Cheyenne, and Quebec, and then the fighters could pick them off. So you have all these atomic bombs going off scaring the fighters into playing follow-the-leader, while fighters buzz around playing pop-goes-the-weasel? Frankly, I doubt it. The long flying speedy Bomarc's job had to be to fly straight at the incoming missiles, getting enough speed to get into the stratosphere, and detonate the atomic bomb once they were within 1/4 mile, as that was close enough to knock the missile out. Norad Headquarters had 300 Bomarcs in silos, about 15 miles away in a ring. Why launch them from there, if their job was to line up bombers over Northern Alberta? The only thing coming at the headquarters to worry about was an ICBM. Bombers you could see on Pinetree/Dew radar, and pick off with Voodoos, which were designed to scramble, climb at 60 degrees at Mach 2, and launch a missile into the Foxbat's or bomber's path.
The first thing you have to realize about the military is that the only thing they can tell you is a lie. They know that the lie must sound plausible whereas they know the enemy does not beleive it at all. It must however hide the truth, such that the conclusion you would come to that denies it, is also untrue. Once you have heard the standard military lie, you look at the equipment, figure out its real capabilities, and go from there. If you think what you read in Time magazine is the truth, then being a spy would be a matter of having a few subscriptions. The exception to this is where it is important for stand-off or deterrance that the enemy believe your capabilities. Then it is necessary to tell the truth in such a way that he beleive you this time, although it sounds exactly the same as your usual lies.
You are right I will grant about one thing. What the US wanted in the defense theatre in NA was what it got. We really could not veto them. And buying aircraft is all politics. No NATO country overseas would buy Arrows as they cost too much and their role was restricted. As a fighter the Arrow had limitations. It was a superb flier, but it was not manoeuverable enough for dogfighting. I was all speed, reliability and stability. Could have been a bomber, long range ground attack craft, etc.. but is was designed as testing platform for anti-missile and high speed penetration capabilities. Interestingly, probably in a pure gunfight, the CF-100 could shoot down most jets of the day as it could turn faster than they could with its larger wing area. The CF-100 was also an all weather tube-computer operated aircraft that was designed for close fighting in a nuclear EMP environment.
Dief the Chief shot the Arrow down. He was a Tory. Like Joe after him he could not hang on to power. Maybe Ralph could do the job. If he can talk and sell used cars, he should be able to do as well, as Jean de logger dere.
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