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Star Wars Program

By: Gavin Daniel

Star Wars Program

President Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in the 1980s, which was an anti-ballistic missile program aimed at shooting down nuclear missiles in space. SDI, or "Star Wars," was tasked with developing a space-based barrier that would make nuclear missiles ineffective.

Reagan and Teller

  • Reagan had already had some interest in the anti-ballistic missile technology.
  • He met with Edward Teller, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
  • Teller described directed-energy weapons, such as lasers and microwaves, and was said to have amazed Reagan.
  • Teller explained that these weapons, as the third generation of nuclear weapons, following fission and thermonuclear weapons, could possibly protect against a nuclear strike.
  • Reagan and Teller's interaction ultimately led him to create this program.

Protection from the Soviet Union

  • In 1979, Reagan visited the North American Aerospace Defense.
  • It was located in a military bunker near Colorado Springs inside the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.
  • Reagan toured the facility and was amazed, however, he asked General James Hill "What would happen if it was hit by a missile?", Hill replied "It would blow us away".
  • Reagan thought there was a better solution to this, so early in his his presidency he signed the National Security Decision Directive.
  • This would include research and development on the ballistic missile defense system.
  • Resulting in giving the U.S. protection from the Soviet Union.

Unsuccessful

Unsuccessful

  • Although the Star Wars Program was a well thought out plan, it unfortunately did not succeed.
  • Here are the many reasons why this plan failed:
  • To prevent a technological arms race with the United States, the Soviet Union immediately developed ways to overcome missile defenses by developing upgraded missiles and anti-satellite systems.
  • Billions and billions of dollars were spent on this program but most of the technology was just not possible at the time. It hadn't existed yet and maybe not for a couple more decades.
  • Because of these reason, it was abandoned by Bill Clinton in 1993.

Discussion Question

If the technology was possible at the time and everything Reagan had planned ultimately achieved. What do you think would of happened during that time and how would that of affected today?

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