Strategic Defense Initiative Program Research Articles

Russia and the US in the Cold War arms race

Russia and the US in the Cold War arms race

Comment on “Old and new ideas visited for comet and asteroid hazard mitigation strategies” by J. Wakefield] Clarifying a few points about impact mitigation strategies

The article on impact mitigation studies [Eos, August 30, 1994] raises some interesting points about the hazard of asteroid and comet impacts but betrays a major misunderstanding of the mitigation strategies under study. It refers repeatedly to Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or “Star Wars” systems and tries to discuss their merits without giving the reader any hint of what these mysterious new technologies are or how they may relate to mitigation of impacts. In fact, detecting, intercepting, and deflecting a kilometer‐scale asteroid or comet at ranges from the Earth of tens of millions of kilometers has little in common with the missile detection and defense systems developed as part of the SDI program, no more than you would use a rifle to shoot down an Inter‐Continental Ballistic Missile. The one example mentioned, the Air Force GEODSS system of wide‐field telescopes, was not a part of SDI. In addition, the article seriously overstates the current discovery rate of kilometer‐scale near Earth asteroids, which are currently found at a rate of several per year, not several per month (the several per month refers to all near Earth asteroids found, most of which are less than 1 km in diameter).

Remarks delivered on behalf of the honorable Sheila E. Widnall, secretary of the Air Force

Remarks delivered on behalf of the honorable Sheila E. Widnall, secretary of the Air Force

The strategic defense initiative: An innovative science and technology perspective that's much more than “star wars”

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) proposed by President Reagan immediately caught the fancy of the news media who dubbed it the “Star Wars Program.” However, only in the fantasy world of films can the tasks envisioned by the program be accomplished by a few swashbuckling space heroes who take on all the technological might of an evil empire and succeed. By contrast, the SDI program goals will require a major commitment of scientific assets, money, and people just to establish feasibility of the concepts.

SDI

The President's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) began in 1983 following his historic March 23, 1983 speech. The SDI program has enjoyed substantial progress since this beginning. As the SDI begins its fourth year, the outlines of a basic system architecture, feasible for deployment in the 1990s, begins to emerge. In addition, SDI technical progress shows great promise not only for an initial strategic defense system, but also for maintaining defense effectiveness into the first decades of the next century against countermeasures designed specifically to defeat defenses.

Treaty Interpretation by the Executive Branch: The Abm Treaty and “Star Wars” Testing and Development

In the latest interpretation of the 13-year-old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty)—one that stunned the arms control community—the Reagan administration announced on October 6, 1985, that the United States is authorized under the Treaty to develop and test advanced technology, spacebased weapons systems such as lasers and particle beam weapons. According to the administration, the ABM Treaty places no restrictions, short of actual deployment, on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the so-called Star Wars program. Although Secretary of State George Shultz has stated that the United States will continue to exercise restraint in the SDI program by limiting the development and testing of weapons according to a “restrictive” interpretation of the ABM Treaty, the question remains whether a legally sound basis exists for the administration’s “permissive” interpretation of the Treaty.