Strategic Defense Initiative

"Star Wars program" redirects here. For the media franchise, see Star Wars.

Strategic Defense Initiative Organization
Agency overview
Formed1984
Preceding agency
Dissolved1993 (renamed)
Superseding agency
JurisdictionFederal government of the United States

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the Star Wars program, was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles. The program was announced in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan.[1] Reagan called for a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete, and to end the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a "suicide pact".[2] Elements of the program reemerged in 2019 under the Space Development Agency (SDA).[3]

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the US Department of Defense to oversee development. Advanced weapon concepts, including lasers,[4][5] particle-beam weapons, and ground and space-based missile systems were studied, along with sensor, command and control, and computer systems needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the globe. The US held a significant advantage in advanced missile defense systems through decades of extensive research and testing. Several concepts, technologies and insights obtained were transferred to subsequent programs.[6][7][8][9] Under SDIO's Innovative Sciences and Technology Office,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] investment was made in basic research at national laboratories, universities, and in industry. These programs have continued to be key sources of funding for research scientists in particle physics, supercomputing/computation, advanced materials, and other critical science and engineering disciplines.

In 1987, the American Physical Society concluded that the technologies were decades away from readiness, and at least another decade of research was required to know whether such a system was even possible.[17] After the publication of the APS report, SDI's budget was cut. By the late 1980s, the effort had re-focused on the "Brilliant Pebbles" concept using small orbiting missiles, such as a lower cost conventional air-to-air missile.

SDI was derisively nicknamed the Star Wars program, and criticized for threatening to destabilize the MAD-approach, and to re-ignite "an offensive arms race".[18] In a 1986 speech, Senator Joe Biden claimed “'Star Wars' represents a fundamental assault on the concepts, alliances and arms-control agreements that have buttressed American security for several decades, and the president’s continued adherence to it constitutes one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in the history of modern statecraft.”[19]

Through declassified intelligence material, the wider implications and effects of the program revealed that due to the potential neutralization of its arsenal and resulting loss of a balancing power factor, SDI was a cause of grave concern for the Soviet Union and its successor state Russia.[20] Following the Cold War when nuclear arsenals were shrinking, political support for SDI collapsed. SDI ended in 1993, when the Clinton Administration redirected the efforts towards theatre ballistic missiles and renamed the agency the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO).

In 2019, elements, specifically the observation portions, of the program re-emerged with President Trump's signing of the National Defense Authorization Act.[21] The program is managed by the Space Development Agency (SDA) as part of the new National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA).[22][23] CIA Director Mike Pompeo called for additional funding to achieve a full-fledged "Strategic Defense Initiative for our time, the SDI II" though it is unclear what this had to do with SDA.[24]

  1. ^ Federation of American Scientists. "Missile Defense Milestones". Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2007.
  2. ^ "Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)".
  3. ^ Popkin, Gabriel (January 22, 2019). "Decades after Reagan's 'Star Wars,' Trump calls for missile defenses that would blast warheads from the sky".
  4. ^ Wang, C. P., ed. (1985). Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers. STS Press.
  5. ^ Japan, High Temperature Society of (May 21, 1987). Duarte, F. J. (ed.). Proceedings of the International Conference on Laser Advanced Materials Processing--Science and Applications. High Temperature Society of Japan.
  6. ^ Abrahamson, James A.; Cooper, Henry F. (September 1993). "What Did We Get For Our $30-Billion Investment In SDI/BMD?" (PDF). Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  7. ^ Steven Pifer (March 30, 2015). "The limits of U.S. missile defense". Brookings.edu. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  8. ^ Podvig, Pavel. "Did Star Wars Help End the Cold War? Soviet Response to the SDI Program" (PDF). Science & Global Security. 25 (1, 3–27). Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  9. ^ "A New U.S. Missile Defense Test May Have Increased the Risk of Nuclear War".
  10. ^ "SDIO Funds Research". MIT: The Tech. November 5, 1985. Archived from the original on August 8, 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  11. ^ "Special-Presentation Innovative Science and Technology Programs". SPIE. June 1988. doi:10.1117/12.947548.
  12. ^ "Star Wars' Inc". Inc Magazine. April 1987.
  13. ^ Goodwin, Irwin (June 1988). "Washington Ins & Outs: Ionson and Mense Leave SDIO". Physics Today. 41 (6): 53. Bibcode:1988PhT....41f..53G. doi:10.1063/1.2811448.
  14. ^ "Low Profile for SDI Work on Campus". The Scientist Magazine. May 1988.
  15. ^ "Ionson Counters SDI Dispute". MIT: The Tech. November 1985. Archived from the original on August 8, 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  16. ^ "Ionson Defends SDI Program". MIT: The Tech. October 1985. Archived from the original on June 16, 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  17. ^ APS Study Group Participants; Bloembergen, N.; Patel, C. K. N.; Avizonis, P.; Clem, R. G.; Hertzberg, A.; Johnson, T. H.; Marshall, T.; Miller, R. B.; Morrow, W. E.; Salpeter, E. E.; Sessler, A. M.; Sullivan, J. D.; Wyant, J. C.; Yariv, A.; Zare, R. N.; Glass, A. J.; Hebel, L. C.; APS Council Review Committee; Pake, G. E.; May, M. M.; Panofsky, W. K.; Schawlow, A. L.; Townes, C. H.; York, H. (July 1, 1987). "Report to The American Physical Society of the study group on science and technology of directed energy weapons". Reviews of Modern Physics. 59 (3): S1–S201. Bibcode:1987RvMP...59....1B. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.59.S1.
  18. ^ Nolan, Cathal J. (2002). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations: S-Z. Greenwood Pub. p. 1600. ISBN 978-0-313-32383-6.
  19. ^ "Opinion: Ronald Reagan Just Saved Israel From Iran's Attack". MSN.com.
  20. ^ "A Newly Declassified CIA Paper Details a Tense Subplot in the Cold War Arms Race". Business Insider.
  21. ^ Reif, Kingston (September 1, 2018). "Congress Calls for Interceptors in Space".
  22. ^ Nathan Strout (July 24, 2019). "What will the Space Development Agency really do?".
  23. ^ Erwin, Sandra (October 5, 2020). "L3Harris, SpaceX win Space Development Agency contracts to build missile-warning satellites". SpaceNews. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  24. ^ Pompeo, Mike (January 18, 2022). "Nuclear Weapons, China, and a Strategic Defense Initiative for this Century".