Thursday, July 19, 2012

Will Reagan's Star Wars Plan Be Revived?

A solid state laser (SSL) would be mounted onto a U.S. Navy warship and would be used to destroy multiple incoming warheads or missiles aimed at a naval fleet or the United States

'We Want LASERS For Our $636m Missile Defense System': Military Experts Aim To Revive Reagan's Star Wars Plan -- Daily Mail

Almost 30-years after President Reagan promised America an impregnable space-laser defence shield against nuclear missile attack, the country is still waiting.

Pentagon planners and successive president's have since moved away from Reagan's 'Star Wars' Strategic Defence Initiatve (SDI) goal, instead concentrating on an anti-ballistic missile defence that relies on using ground-based rockets.

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My Comment: All major US defense related budgets are going to be slashed in the upcoming years .... reviving defense related projects like 'Star Wars' is not going to happen .... even if developments in technology makes it look very feasible.

1 comment:

Orion said...

I have to disagree with you there.

SAM's and their support systems and maintenance tails are very, very expensive and every shot is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Every inbound missile needs at least 2 SM-2's of whatever type, followed up possibly by a ESSM or CIWS.

An SSL system is cheap, accurate, reliable, and easy to re-use shot after shot once you have it. It would be an absolute game-changer for defending SAG's or CVBGs and it would take the ascendancy from sea-skimming supersonic ASM's back to the destroyers and frigates that would be mounting the air defense.

They've got the systems working now. They just need to buy them and mount them - and of course, power them.

Orion