What Can We Do? When Can We Do It?

Whap, zap, hiss, buzz! The sounds of the video arcade. The sounds of Star Wars. And to most Americans, unfortunately, the image of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). As long as constellations of “death stars” hovering over the planet remain our view of a missile defense, effective protection for the United States is further away than a cure for the common cold. The technical truth of missile defense, however, is very different. We are much closer to a defense that works than most of us realize, or than we had dared hope in 1983. Effective strategic defenses in the 1990s can use 1980s military technologies—precision guided missiles, sophisticated micro-computers, and heat-seeking sensors.

It is impossible for a professional, let alone a layman, to keep all of the types of ballistic-missile-defense systems straight. It is no wonder that some members of Congress wouldn’t buy a “late-midcourse exoatmospheric kinetic-energy interceptor system.”

SW

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Simon P. Worden

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Whap, zap, hiss, buzz! The sounds of the video arcade. The sounds of Star Wars. And to most Americans, unfortunately, the image of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). As long as constellations of “death stars” hovering over the planet remain our view of a missile defense, effective protection for the United States is further away than a cure for the common cold. The technical truth of missile defense, however, is very different. We are much closer to a defense that works than most of us realize, or than we had dared hope in 1983. Effective strategic defenses in the 1990s can use 1980s military technologies—precision guided missiles, sophisticated micro-computers, and heat-seeking sensors.

It is impossible for a professional, let alone a layman, to keep all of the types of ballistic-missile-defense systems straight. It is no wonder that some members of Congress wouldn’t buy a “late-midcourse exoatmospheric kinetic-energy interceptor system.”