Amid reports in the 1980s that the Soviet Union had significantly improved the numbers and quality of their offensive nuclear weapons, US defense officials warned that the Soviet Union had achieved  pronounced first and second-strike capabilities.  In response, President Reagan revived notions of a national missile defense system and reintroduced this concept during a nationally televised address.  Reagan’s proposal of using space-based weapons to intercept enemy ICBM’s was officially known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), but was labeled “Star Wars” by skeptics referring to the futuristic George Lucas film by the same name.    

In 1984 the Defense Department established the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and in 1987 the Strategic Defense System Phase I was approved.  The architecture of this system consisted of: 1) space-based interceptors (SBI), 2) ground-based interceptors, 3) ground-based sensors, 4) two space-based sensors, and 5) a battle management system.  The SBI component – a garage-like satellite housing a number of individual hit-to-kill interceptors – was soon replaced with the Brilliant Pebbles design which employed a global early warning and tracking system in support of thousands of small, space-based kill vehicles each capable of autonomous interception of enemy missiles that travel within its range.  The title “Brilliant” refers to the use of powerful miniaturized computers and sensors allowing each independent interceptor to employ technology possessed previously only by large, expensive satellites.  The shift from SBI to Brilliant Pebbles was an effort to make the space-based system – initially comprised of a few large SBI satellites – less vulnerable to Soviet anti-satellite weapons (ASATS).  In addition, because the Brilliant Pebbles interceptors could be mass-produced, cost for the ABM system was expected to be significantly reduced. 

The political climate during this time seemed to generate a momentum in favor of deploying a NMD system.  In 1986 President Reagan rebuffed entreaties by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to limit the scope of SDI, and in 1987 a legal review of the ABM Treaty concluded that the testing of space-based ABM weapons did not violate the Treaty.  However, in 1988 Senator Sam Nunn proposed that SDI be refocused from a national system to a “limited system for protecting against accidental and unauthorized launches….” 

In 1989 President Bush offered his support for the Brilliant Pebbles system, but with the end of the Cold War and the diminished Soviet nuclear threat, the concept of a national missile defense came under scrutiny amidst what seemed to be a radically transformed security environment.

Timeline

March 23, 1983 – President Ronald Reagan delivers a national television address in which he calls for research into defenses that would make “nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.”

March 24, 1983 – Opponents in Congress label President Reagan’s vision of a space-based ABM system “Star Wars.”  

March 25, 1983 – The ‘Star Wars’ policy announced by Reagan two days earlier is formalized in National Security Decision Directive 85.

October 1983 – The Fletcher Report outlines two agendas and schedules for the development and deployment of an ABM system.  The favored program was to be technologically constrained and consist of five basic research areas: Systems; Surveillance Acquisition, Tracking and Kill Assessment; Directed Energy Weapons; Kinetic Energy Weapons; and Supporting Technologies (Survivability, Lethality, Space Power, Space Logistics; Communications, Computers, and Software).

January 6, 1984 – Presidential National Security Decision Directive 119 establishes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to explore the possibility of developing an ABM system.  The initiative was to be guided by the technology schedule developed in the Fletcher Report.

June 10, 1984 – Following two partially-successful tests, the Army’s hit-to-kill interceptor successfully intercepts a target missile.

October 11-12, 1986 – President Reagan refuses to agree to limitations on the Strategic Defense Initiative proposed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.  

May 13, 1987 – A legal review of the 1972 ABM Treaty concludes that the Treaty does not prevent testing space-based missile defenses, including directed energy weapons. 

January 19, 1988 – Senator Sam Nunn proposes focusing SDI on development of a “limited system for protecting against accidental and unauthorized launches” with a subsequent goal of making the system more comprehensive.

June 14, 1989 – Based upon a general review of US national security strategy, President George H. W. Bush decides to continue the SDI program, emphasizing development of space-based boost phase interceptor technologies such as Brilliant Pebbles.   

Continue to the 1990s

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