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Furthermore, unexpectedly rapid progress or a technological break-through on any one weapon system, in itself, often diminishes the relative importance of other competitive systems.

This has necessitated a continuous review and reevaluation of the defense program in order to redirect resources to the newer and more important weapons systems and to eliminate or reduce effort on weapons systems which have been overtaken by events.

Thus, in the last few years, a number of programs which looked very promising at the time their development was commenced have since been completely eliminated.

For example, the importance of the Regulus 2, a very promising aerodynamic ship-to-surface missile designed to be launched by surfaced submarines, was greatly diminished by the successful acceleration of the much more advanced Polaris ballistic missile launched by submerged submarines.