of broader estimates or to provide direct support to national estimates in preparation. Semiannual or annual reports were planned for each of the major fields such as guided missiles, electronics, biological and chemical warfare, and medical research. While these plans did not reach fruition as estimates, many studies were actually published -- primarily as SEC studies -- and were of much support to the national estimates program, in that sufficient information had been collected and evaluated to cause a revision of previous concepts of Soviet capabilities in electronics, guided missiles, and other vital fields.
In August 1952, DCID 3/4 was promulgated and OSI contributions to estimates became sharply limited, at least in theory, to the basic sciences. In spite of DCID 3/4, OSI continued to participate in militarily related estimates, again primarily through the SIC. One of the most important estimates which OSI participated in in this period was the first estimate on guided missiles which was published in October 1954. This estimate was particularly important because, for the first time, the meaning of Soviet developments in guided missiles began to be appreciated in the U.S. Nonetheless, "post mortems" and "validity studies" on
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