Strategic Defense Initiative  Team G  Shane Murray  Leah Matthews  Shaun Mahoney  Bill Price  Patrick Quast

Strategic Defense Initiative Concept-History-Scope By: Shane Murray

Concept  Destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles bound for United States territory  Interceptor Missiles/Lasers  Ground and Spaced Based Weapons  Missiles based from land  Lasers on satellites orbiting over United States  “Like hitting a bullet with a bullet”  Missiles traveled nearly 16,000 mph  Unrealistic

History  Cold War Nuclear Arms Race  USSR created need for a national defense system.  1983 President Ronald Reagan proposed SDI plan  In direct violation of 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM)

Scope  SDI project re-routed as National Missile Defense (NMD)  Battlefield sized SDI  Destroy missiles on smaller scale over a specific battlefield  Iraqi SCUD missile  NMD becomes heavily funded with nuclear proliferation at a new high  Korea, Iraq, Syria and Libya all obtain nuclear arms

Sensor systems  ex) Radars: they perform signal processing on data perceived by the sensor  Imaging radar  A single computer incorporated into the radar would perform the processing, storage, and analysis  Interceptor  Can locate and destroy missiles on their own  Would provide continuous world-wide coverage against limited or accidental ballistic missile strikes.

 Using already produced, commercial computers could be cheaper and simpler if software was just created for the computers  More reliable and efficient, less expensive  Software development would not have to wait for the hardware, in case schedules are not met.

 Computers can also help with communication among the battle managers, sensors, and weapons  Space to space  Space to ground  Ground to space  Info transmitted would be digitally encoded  Info is transmitted10^7 bits/second  Examples of topics of communication  Location of targets and weapons  Status of resources  Decisions that have been made

 Can predict the behavior of different system designs  To anticipate threats against the system  To model different ways in which the system will work  Provide realistic environment in which the system might work  To test the functioning of the system as a whole, both before and after deployment  Example:  A computer that would be used in an aircraft can be tested for durability during flight

Pros And Cons Of Strategic Defensive Initiative By Shaun Mahoney

Pros  Protection from a Nuclear Attack  Feasible Technology  Now Affordable  Very High Protection Rate Of Oncoming Attacks  More Jobs  Safety

Cons  Little Success or Accuracy  Radiation  Costs For Program Could Be Used For Other Expenses For The Country  Might Never Be Used

 Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan  Introduced the program in 1980’s at the height of the Cold War  Believed that such a program was necessary to defend our country against incoming attacks by hostile nations (particularly the Soviet Union) Creator and Supporter

Current Supporter  President George W. Bush  The S.D.I program was a major part of his 2000 Presidential campaign  Reintroduced the program after Former President Clinton demoted it during his presidency  Sources within the White House confirm that the Bush administration has conducted secret research that could produce a powerful ground-base laser meant to shatter enemy satellites

Miscellaneous Support  The United States State Department- One official quoted in 2006 as saying “Our government will continue to consider possible role that space-related weapons may play in protecting our assets.”  The Pentagon- Announced the results of three tests of missile interceptors over the Pacific Ocean, making clear that they are considering weapons of S.D.I. nature

Current and Future Support  Poll of Mother’s in four states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Wisconsin) found that they too support a missile defense system  Participant's believed that a missile defense system would make them feel safer and would like one developed as soon as possible  However, this poll was conducted by the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA)

Opponents of SDI

Main Opponents  Congress  Press/Media  American Public  Military Contractors

Congress-Main Reasons  Potential for Public Embarrassment  Huge Bill  Need for expanded taxes  Upset Tax Payers

Defense Contractors  The Holy Grail of Defense Contracts  Too expensive  Too complicated  Just out of reach in terms of a finished product

American Public  Fear of if something went wrong, there would be no back up  Soviet Hacking  Against raised taxes