Strategic Defense Initiative

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Strategic Defense Initiative Organization

Agency overview
Formed	1984
Preceding agency	Ballistic Missile Defense Organization
Dissolved	1993 (renamed)
Superseding agency	Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Missile Defense Agency
Jurisdiction	Federal government of the United States

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the Star Wars program, was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles. The program was announced in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan.^[1] Reagan called for a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete, and to end the doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a "suicide pact".^[2] Elements of the program reemerged in 2019 under the Space Development Agency (SDA).^[3]

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the US Department of Defense to oversee development. Advanced weapon concepts, including lasers,^[4][5] particle-beam weapons, and ground and space-based missile systems were studied, along with sensor, command and control, and computer systems needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the globe. The US held a significant advantage in advanced missile defense systems through decades of extensive research and testing. Several concepts, technologies and insights obtained were transferred to subsequent programs.^[6][7][8][9] Under SDIO's Innovative Sciences and Technology Office,^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]} investment was made in basic research at national laboratories, universities, and in industry. These programs have continued to be key sources of funding for research scientists in particle physics, supercomputing/computation, advanced materials, and other critical science and engineering disciplines.

In 1987, the American Physical Society concluded that the technologies were decades away from readiness, and at least another decade of research was required to know whether such a system was even possible.^[17] After the publication of the APS report, SDI's budget was cut. By the late 1980s, the effort had re-focused on the "Brilliant Pebbles" concept using small orbiting missiles, such as a lower cost conventional air-to-air missile.

SDI was derisively nicknamed the Star Wars program, and criticized for threatening to destabilize the MAD-approach, and to re-ignite "an offensive arms race".^[18] In a 1986 speech, Senator Joe Biden claimed “'Star Wars' represents a fundamental assault on the concepts, alliances and arms-control agreements that have buttressed American security for several decades, and the president’s continued adherence to it constitutes one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in the history of modern statecraft.”^[19]

Through declassified intelligence material, the wider implications and effects of the program revealed that due to the potential neutralization of its arsenal and resulting loss of a balancing power factor, SDI was a cause of grave concern for the Soviet Union and its successor state Russia.^[20] Following the Cold War when nuclear arsenals were shrinking, political support for SDI collapsed. SDI ended in 1993, when the Clinton Administration redirected the efforts towards theatre ballistic missiles and renamed the agency the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO).

In 2019, elements, specifically the observation portions, of the program re-emerged with President Trump's signing of the National Defense Authorization Act.^[21] The program is managed by the Space Development Agency (SDA) as part of the new National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA).^[22][23] CIA Director Mike Pompeo called for additional funding to achieve a full-fledged "Strategic Defense Initiative for our time, the SDI II" though it is unclear what this had to do with SDA.^[24]