Star Wars program
Orbital defense initiative
The Star Wars program was the popular name for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a proposed U.S. missile defense system announced by President Reagan in 1983.
The plan envisioned satellite-based lasers and other technology to intercept Soviet nuclear missiles—ambitious enough that critics named it after the science fiction franchise.
Though never fully realized, it influenced Cold War diplomacy and later missile defense efforts.
- ReaganAmerican presidential surname
- missile defenseSystem intercepting hostile projectiles
- Cold WarProlonged East-West standoff
- lasersAmplified coherent light sources
- laser beamsIntense coherent photon streams
satellites · nuclear · Pentagon · space weapons · shield · interceptors · Soviet Union · strategic · antimissile · orbital · military · research funding · deterrence · rockets · targeting · bunker · warheads · kinetic
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis
Star Wars programmutual assured destruction
Reciprocal annihilation prevents war
Star Wars programnuclear disarmament
Reducing atomic weapon stockpiles
arms control · SALT · arms reduction · détente · nonproliferation
star, stars, starred, starring, starry, stardom, starlet, starlight, starfish