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The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed the Star Wars program, was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the US from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons.
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), commonly known as Star Wars, proposed U.S. strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks—as originally conceived, from the Soviet Union. It was first proposed by President Ronald Reagan in a nationwide television address on March 23, 1983.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jul 18, 2018 · The Strategic Defense Initiative was ultimately most effective not as an anti-ballistic missile defense system, but as a propaganda tool which could put military and economic pressure on the Soviet Union to fund their own anti-ballistic missile system.
Less than a year after that March 1983 speech, the White House established the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), more commonly and derisively known as “Star Wars,” to conduct research into a wide variety of advanced technologies that could be used for land- and space-based missile defense.
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- Reflecting on “Past” U.S. Missile Defense Policy
- Legacy of The Strategic Defense Initiative
- The “Present” Threat Environment
- National BMD Not About The PRC Or Russia
- Importance of International Cooperation on Missile Defense
- Conclusion
On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan concluded a televised address from the White House by posing the question: “What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before t...
Obviously, it’s impossible to do justice to the 40-year history of U.S. missile defense policy launched by the SDI in only a few minutes, but I hope this overview helps set the stage for some conversations today. From my perspective, a key legacy of the Strategic Defense Initiative is that it did not aim to achieve a unilateral strategic advantage....
In transitioning from the “past” to the “present,” we recognize that offensive missile capabilities continue to evolve in complexity, capability, and capacity. For example, the PRC, Russia, the DPRK, and Iran are developing and deploying greater numbers of missiles with increasingly greater: 1. ranges, 2. accuracy, 3. velocity, 4. lethality, 5. rel...
That said, I want to emphasize that today’s U.S. homeland BMD system is designed only to address ICBMs from rogue states such as the DPRK, and potentially Iran. Though the United States retains the right to defend ourselves from any source, Russia’s—as well as the PRC’s—numerically large and sophisticated strategic nuclear forces are capable of sat...
Another important legacy of the Strategic Defense Initiative, and a consistent element in all subsequent missile defense policy initiatives, is the recognition that international cooperation constitutes a force multiplier for regional stability. With the State Department’s support, DOD programs of cooperation with allies and partners have been a vi...
Let me end on one more legacy of the SDI that remains particularly relevant to AVC’s work today. In his SDI-initiating address on March 23, 1983, President Reagan noted his commitment to the mutual reduction in nuclear weapons. He noted that his announcement could “pave the way for arms control measures to eliminate the weapons themselves.” Since t...
This overview of the Strategic Defense Initiative research plan illustrates the four- layered defense system contemplated: attacking ballistic missiles in their boost and post-boost phases, during midcourse flight and in the terminal portion of their trajecto- ries as they descend into the atmosphere.
Jan 18, 2019 · President Ronald Reagan saw the proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as a safeguard against the most terrifying Cold War outcome—nuclear annihilation.
