The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) is a system proposed by President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear missiles. It was dubbed "
Star Wars" by opponents, implying it is an impractical science fiction fantasy, but supporters have adopted the usage as
well on the grounds that yesterday's science fiction is often
tomorrow's engineering. While Gorbachev's reforms deserve a vast majority of the blame, or credit, for the collapse of the
Soviet Union, SDI may have contributed to the fall by successfully applying the strategy of technology, which was a prevalent doctrine at the
time.
Project and proposals
The proposal was sharply criticized for its potential costs, doubts that it would be technologically feasible and afford complete protection against all delivery systems, concerns that it would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty and destabilize the nuclear balance of
power.
The research was controlled by the Strategic Defense Initiative Office, an agency of the Department of Defense until 1993, when it was renamed the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Department of Defense cost estimates for SDI-related spending during fiscal years
1984-1994 amounted to US$32.6 billion. An independent report by the Congressional Research Service arrived at a much higher figure of US$70.7 billion 1.
The project was repeatedly scaled back, renamed Global Protection Against Limited Strikes (GPALS, dubbed "Son of Star Wars") in 1991, and refocused on protection from smaller attacks. GPALS was based on a ground system of
rocket-launched interceptors aimed at preventing
small scale launches by "
rogue states" (apparently
North Korea, Libya, Iraq or
Iran) from impacting on the US.
Missile Defense
President Bill Clinton almost halted the program, but it has regained momentum under President George W. Bush, whose version is called the National Missile Defense (NMD).
