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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. The concept was announced in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan, [1] a critic of the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a ...
- 1993 (renamed)
- Federal government of the United States
- 1984
- Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Missile Defense Agency
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
Learn about the history and controversy of SDI, a Cold War program that aimed to shoot down nuclear missiles in space. Find out how Reagan initiated SDI, how it threatened the balance of mutually assured destruction, and how it influenced the arms race.
- Overview
- A Defense Against the Soviets
- Critics Call SDI ‘Star Wars’
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Reagan said he wanted to avoid nuclear Armageddon, critics called the Strategic Defense Initiative far-fetched and expensive.
It was a plan that read like science fiction: A system armed with an array of space-based X-ray lasers would detect and deflect any nukes headed toward the United States.
President Ronald Reagan saw the proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as a safeguard against the most terrifying Cold War outcome—nuclear annihilation. When Reagan first announced SDI on March 23, 1983, he called upon the U.S. scientists who “gave us nuclear weapons to turn their great talents to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.”
From the start, politicians and scientists argued that SDI was overambitious. The technical hurdles required to achieve SDI (which included a number of proposed designs and weapons—not just space-based lasers) seemed so incredible at the time that Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy referred to it as ''reckless 'Star Wars' schemes.'' The ‘Star Wars’ moniker stuck. Over the course of 10 years, the government spent up to $30 billion on developing the concept, but the futuristic program remained just that—futuristic. It was formally scrapped by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
“The Soviets had literally hundreds of ballistic missiles aimed at the U.S., and the idea was that SDI would render all of them obsolete,” says Matt C. Pinsker, adjunct professor of Homeland Security & Criminal Justice at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University.
“The practical objection to SDI was that it was too expensive and not technologically feasible. The theoretical opposition to it was that it might ignite an arms race, though this does not make sense because there already was one.”
Artist's concept of interceptor under development for US Army's High Endoatmospheric Defense Interceptor, a key element of SDI's plan, in sub-launched scenario in which the US could defend from submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks.
But was the technology even feasible? In the 2000 book Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, Frances Fitzgerald writes that “a perfect antiballistic missile defense was beyond the reach of technology. It was just a story, and yet to trust the polls, the idea had great popular appeal in the mid-’80s, and many Americans believed such a thing could be built. In that sense the Strategic Defense Initiative was Reagan’s greatest triumph as an actor-storyteller.”
Houghton says scientists and engineers continue to say that if they had the necessary funding, they could have made the technology happen. But he calls that argument problematic, pointing to a 1987 study by the American Physical Society, which brought together some of the nation’s top scientific minds to take measure of all of the systems then under development. The study focused on the technical challenges of SDI, including developing high intensity lasers and particle beams.
“The report concluded that not a single one of the systems then under study or development was even remotely close to deployment,” says Houghton. “It noted that every single system under consideration had to at least improve its energy output by 100 times to be effective. In some cases, as much as a million times.”
Pinsker, however, claims the technology was feasible—if given enough time to develop. “We know this because much of it exists today,” he says. “For modern day examples of this, you can see how the U.S. Navy is placing lasers on its ships and has used them in exercises to take out drones and boats in military exercises.”
Of course this is now. In the 1980s, that kind of technology was rudimentary. Still, Pinsker argues, that was the point of Reagan's initiative—to grind away at the research until the concept became feasible.
Learn about the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a controversial program that aimed to protect the U.S. from nuclear missiles with space-based lasers and other technologies. Find out why Reagan proposed it, how critics and scientists reacted, and what happened to it.
- Lesley Kennedy
Apr 28, 2023 · Learn how the Strategic Defense Initiative launched by President Reagan in 1983 evolved into the current U.S. missile defense policy and programs. Explore the challenges and opportunities of defending against advanced missile threats from rogue regimes and adversaries.
Learn about President Reagan's proposal to develop a space-based missile defense system that could make nuclear weapons obsolete. Explore the reasons, challenges, and consequences of SDI for U.S. security and arms control.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a major program for defense against Soviet missiles championed by President Ronald Reagan beginning in 1983. The U.S. missile defense program began in March 1946 in response to Germany's World War II missile program that included plans for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). By the mid ...
