Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE
vision based on American technical and industrial capabilities
to render offensive nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.” 50
The space-based Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) promised
a way out of the “balance of terror,” the system of nuclear deterrence
that had been American policy for decades. 51 Those
who distrusted the movement toward arms control and feared
that these treaties and the unrelenting arms buildup gave the
Soviets parity, if not superiority, in strategic weapons cheered
the proposal. 52 SDI would give the United States more options,
play to American technical and industrial strengths, serve as a
counter to Soviet BMD and heavy ICBMs, defend against both
an accidental (or unauthorized) attack, and add uncertainty to
an attacker’s considerations. Finally, an American BMD would
provide insurance against the possibility of the Soviets cheating
or breaking out of the ABM treaty. 53
Opponents of BMD quickly responded. They attempted to
ridicule the system by naming it Star Wars for the popular, futuristic
movie of the day, a tag quickly picked up and circulated
by the media. There was substantial opposition from both
the Air Force and Navy—both feared that SDI would take money
from other programs. Of course, the arms-control community
along with many in academia rose against the project. Close to
7,000 scientists pledged not to accept SDI money, including 15
Nobel Laureates and the majority in the physics departments
at the nation’s top 20 colleges. The criticisms were perhaps best
summarized by former president Jimmy Carter who called SDI
“infeasible, extremely costly, misleading and an obstacle to
nuclear arms control.” 54
The problems were as grand as the scheme. The technical
obstacles were daunting, as this project was well beyond the
state of the art, as were the costs, which were estimated in the
range of hundreds of billions, with some going as high as one
trillion, dollars. 55 A third major criticism of SDI was that it would
unravel the various arms-control agreements (specifically violate
the ABM treaty) and lead to an arms race. Opinion polls
indicated that the public opposed SDI, especially when informed
of its price. 56
The system made technical progress in the 1980s. One new
development was a nonnuclear warhead, forced on the project
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