European Defence and the Strategic Defence Initiative

Abstract

It is clear that Britain is the NATO ally most sceptical about President Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ initiative. The proposal in our view could involve spending approximately $60 billion over the next ten years on research into a possible two-layer defence against nuclear attack. The overwhelming reason for British doubts is a fear of the consequences it might have for Britain’s own independent nuclear deterrent. It is disputed in Whitehall that ballistic missile defence (BMD) will be within the possible state of the art in the form of a layered defence system, using conventional kinetic energy, laser and particle — beam weapons. Yet the formation of a defence system against the threat of nuclear ballistic missile attack may no longer be a remote or unattainable goal. Indeed technically, these defensive capabilities are within the state of the art and but for the constraints imposed by the 1972 ABM Treaty could be in place today.KeywordsBallistic MissileDefensive SystemOffensive WeaponStrategic Defence InitiativeDefensive CapabilityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.