Star Wars – vindicated again 

I was  in the United States Navy embarked on a guided missile frigate when President Ronald Reagan gave his landmark speech  in 1983 introducing the concept of an advanced integrated weapons system to defend the United States and our allies from attacks from nuclear tipped ballistic missiles.  Reagan was a staunch critic of the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction or “MAD” which since the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the 1950s had been in place to in  theory preclude the first use of nuclear weapons.  

Despite pushback  from many scientists in both the private industry and  even military senior leadership Reagan was convinced that the Soviet Union would be unable to match the United States in its quest to build a similar defensive weapons system.  The concept was termed the  Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or derisively by many simply as “Star Wars.” 

Afterwards some lauded his vision as an example of embracing technology as a distributive platform to defend against Soviet nuclear weapons; however, many of his opponents and the media mocked him and called the concept simply sheer fantasy that would never come to fruition. But in spite of this, Reagan pressed on and was convinced that the former Soviet Union would not have the financial resources nor the advanced technology to field such a similar system.

Fast forward to 1991 and I was sitting at the U.S. Army War College watching the Berlin Wall being torn down. Before our eyes the former Soviet Bear was imploding from within due to a faltering economy and the realization the USSR could not complete with the United States militarily especially if we implemented Star Wars which would render their massive nuclear arsenal obsolete.

Although not directly a space-based platform, we witnessed Reagan’s concept of a large-scale integrated weapons defense system in action last week when Israel intercepted all most all of  Iran’s 300 cruise missiles, drones and rockets aimed at Israel with aircraft, the Iron Dome, and the Arrow Missile defense systems. This was only round one and I suspect we will witness several more missile and drone barrages from Iran before the conflict is brought to its logical conclusion. 

I am sure “The Gipper” was smiling from above knowing that a concept he envisioned almost forty years ago was brought to against the country that held American hostages for 444 days under the Carter Administration and then released only hours before his inauguration. A mere coincidence ? I think not. Strategic leaders craft a vision and inspire others to achieve beyond what they thought possible. Other “leaders” just keep the seat warm – I will let you draw your own conclusions.