Word: sdi
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...threaten to walk out on the spot if the U.S. would not renounce, in advance of any formal bargaining, its Strategic Defense Initiative to develop a system that could intercept and destroy nuclear missiles. Shultz replied that the U.S. would rather leave Geneva without an agreement than abandon SDI, which is popularly known as Star Wars. The Soviets decided to try again later and kept talking. Nonetheless, said Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, a member of Shultz's team, "if the final session Tuesday afternoon had ended on schedule (at 5 p.m.), the conference would have failed." Even after...
...idea of being able to zap enemy missiles from the heavens is not appreciably closer to being translated into hardware than it was when Reagan first proposed the SDI nearly two years ago, despite important breakthroughs in microchip and other crucial technology. A report by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment declared the prospect of an effective missile & defense "so remote that it should not serve as the basis for public expectations or national policy." But the concept does have its well-placed supporters, including George Keyworth, the President's science adviser, and Robert Jastrow, founder of the Goddard Institute...
...SDI stems from the desire to protect the U.S. from a Soviet nuclear strike by relying on something more than the Kremlin's fear of American retaliation. Achieving such protection means finding a way to intercept Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in flight. To accomplish this, scientists have suggested adapting various superadvanced technologies involving lasers, particle beams or projectiles that can be aimed through space at moving objects...
...lean and mean F-16 fighter jet in the 1970s. Abrahamson's office, in a drab rented building two blocks from the White House, is dominated by a large conference table and a blackboard on which he constantly chalks diagrams. Budgeted at $1.4 billion in the current year, the SDI is scheduled to spend some $26 billion over five years. There are fewer than 100 full-time staffers; most of the funds go for research projects assigned to private firms or federal facilities. So far, Abrahamson has spent much of his time soliciting bids from contractors for systems that could...
...since the Soviet Union may walk away from any negotiations that leave Star Wars off the table. Warns Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser under Gerald Ford and sometime consultant on arms control to the Reagan Administration: "The Geneva talks won't get far. If the U.S. refuses to put SDI (the Strategic Defense Initiative) on the table, the Soviets have the option of making a scene or agreeing to a minor, second-rate treaty...