Explain the Strategic Defence Initiative.?

Question

Aka, Star wars or SDI.

Answer 1

up to the 1980's the deterance for nuclear war was what was known as Mutually Assured Destruction..or MAD. It was basically.both we and the Russians had missles in the ground in silos, missels at sea in subs, and cruise missels/bombs on bombers...the arsenal was scattered around so a Pearl Harbor attack couldnt get it all......and then the side that was attack would launch in retaliation and everyone would die.

Many Presidents had to cope with that moral dilema."You mean my only option if we are attacked is to nuke 'em back and kill 200,000,000 million or more,......and maybe poision the planet with fallout and kill EVERYONE?"

Reagn didn't like that option. Technology had caught up with the times to present him....and Presdients since... with the option of shooting down incoming ICBMs As was mentioned, a variety of technologies....space based lasers, ground based interceptors like the Patriot...( which works just fine despite what some posters say).sea based interceptors fired form Navy AEGIS equipped cruisers and destroyers, which have hit 8 of 9 so far in testing, interceptor warheads like giant shotgun shells......and with an incoming warhead doing 10,000 MPH, in Tom Clancy's phrase, hitting a marshmelow would be dangerous!

SDI is also cruical againts either accidental launches, or shots by a madman...Kim Il Jong comes to mind...who dont belive the US has the guts to nuke him in return. Hititng 5,000incoming Soviet warheads would have been tough....nailing one or two or three coming in from N. Korea or Iran is considered a very doable thing.

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Answer 2

The system is intended to provide a deterrent to in coming ICBMs (InterContinental Ballistic Missiles).

It works quite reliably most of the time.

The problem is that the ICBM missiles "merv" (Break into many smaller missiles) on their way in. These smaller missiles can each have a separate target. Many of them can be decoys as well.

This "merv" strategy was implemented as a countermeasure to any SDI type system.

The Patriot Missile System used in the first Gulf War was a terrestrial based descendant of SDI technology developed under Reagan. It saved many lives from Saddam's SCUDD missiles.

PS: Ok fine, give me the thumbs down if you want, but everything I said here is true.

Answer 3

The idea is to develop a defense system that can shoot down incoming missles. Ideas have ranged from space-based lasers to ground-based anti-missile-missles and so-called "kinetic energy weapons," which are basically like throwing a rock at the missile. The missiles are fragile, and any impact or nearby explosion will destroy them. The problem is that they are moving so fast and there is so little time to stop them, that it is almost impossible to do so. So far in tests experimental systems have missed the target by many miles. Most scientists think such a system is unlikely to ever work.

Answer 4

Reagan wanted to be reelected, so he had his people come up with an amazingly complex, expensive and thoroughly mind-bending military project.

The idea was to use lasers and interceptor missiles to shoot down Russian ICBM's while they are still in the upper atmosphere.

Answer 5

a waste of tax dollars to develop space-based weapons, and defensive systems which only serve to keep money flowing to large corporations.