Recently, while campaigning in New Hampshire, former President Donald Trump proposed reviving an oldie but goodie from the Reagan era. He said, “I will build an Iron Dome over our country, a state-of-the-art missile defense shield made in the USA. We do it for other countries. We help other countries, we build, we don’t do it for ourselves.”
Trump invoked the spirit of Reagan when he went on to say, “You know, Reagan proposed that many years ago, Star Wars. He proposed it many, many years ago. But at that time, there was no technology. It was just, like, it looked good. But we have unbelievable technology. We should have then.”
The Iron Dome is the wildly successful Israeli anti-missile defense system that has worked so well warding off bombardments from terrorist groups on Israel’s borders. But “Star Wars” or, as it is properly known, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), has a long and storied history dating back to the depths of the Cold War.
On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech to the nation in which he proposed building a defensive system that would counter the threat of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union against the United States and its allies. The proposal upended the doctrine that deterred a nuclear strike by threatening a similar attack against the Soviets.
The speech elicited a hostile reaction from some in the media and the political class. Sen. Teddy Kennedy, (D-Mass) derided the proposal as “Star Wars,” perhaps an unfortunate branding from his point of view since it was the title of a popular movie franchise at the time.
SDI did not result in a comprehensive defense against nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. The technological challenges were too formidable to overcome at the time. In any case, the Soviet Union fell by 1992, removing the immediate need for missile defense.
One component of the SDI proposal was a space-based, boost-phase system. The idea was to shoot down a ballistic missile from space shortly after it was fired. Several proposals involved the use of lasers or other beam weapons. If Trump is serious about reviving SDI for the 21st century, boost phase defense would be a fruitful area for the Space Force to develop.
Many technologies that were lacking to build a space-based anti-missile defense system in the 1980s have greatly advanced in the 2020s.
Space launch technology, thanks largely to entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, has vastly improved in cost and reliability since the 1980s. The cost of launching a pound of payload on the space shuttle was about $30,000. The cost of launching a pound of payload on the SpaceX Falcon 9 is about $1,200. The SpaceX Starship promises even lower space launch costs. The collapse of space launch costs makes deploying a space-based SDI system far more affordable.
Laser weapons have advanced to the point that they are being tested in the field, The United States Army has a battlefield laser weapon called the Directed Energy Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense system (DE M-SHORAD). The United States Navy has developed a similar weapon called High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS), Both are prototypes designed to ward off missiles and drones and may be deployed shortly.
The evolution of ground-based and sea-based laser weapons to a space-based variety, capable of shooting down ballistic missiles and the new threat of hypersonic missiles, is a logical progression.
The Space Force is already operating Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites deployed at geosynchronous orbits to detect missile launches with infrared sensors. The DSP system will soon be replaced by satellites with more modern technology. Space Force will also deploy a medium Earth orbit constellation that will supplement that geosynchronous orbit system to track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
If former President Trump wins the 2024 election and carries out his promise to deploy a modern version of an SDI system, he should order the development of space-based laser weapons. The balance of terror that gripped the world during the Cold War still exists to a certain extent. Russia still has a nuclear arsenal. China is expanding its nuclear missile fleet. North Korea has nuclear weapons and Iran is developing its own.
A modern space-based missile defense system would fulfill President Reagan’s dream of making nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete.” It would be the ultimate expression of peace through strength.
Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond,” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.