Word: sdi
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...SDI-related systems will be evaluated: three are intended to track and monitor Soviet ICBM launches, two would fire interceptors to destroy the attacking missiles, and one is a "battle-management" computer for coordinating the entire space- and ground-based program. Using computer simulation, test models and flight testing, the Pentagon will try to determine how well the elements of these systems will work...
Although the hardware to be tested is relatively conventional compared with the laser beams and nuclear-generated X rays proposed for the future, the six systems involved would be central to the initial deployment of any antimissile system envisioned by this Administration. Lieut. General James Abrahamson, head of SDI, is explicit about the purpose of Milestone I. "We'd like to reach a position where in the 1990s we will be able to go ahead with deployment," he says, "and to do that we need the enhanced confidence gained from additional testing." Equally important, the tests will give new momentum...
...American president may someday end up where Reagan almost tread last October. At the summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, Reagan almost agreed to dramatic cuts in long-range nuclear weapons in exchange for limits on American space defense plans. Regardless of whether one believes in the promise of SDI, the picture of an aging president, unfamiliar with nuclear strategy, in free-form negotiations with the Soviets is a frightening...
National Security Adviser Frank Carlucci also wants a breakthrough in START, but he is looking for a formula that will make SDI part of a bargain without impinging on R. and D. "Asking this President to accept limits on testing," Carlucci says, "is like asking him to raise taxes tomorrow: he just...
...trick is to find some way of simultaneously allaying the fear in the Kremlin that SDI will move too quickly and the fear in the Oval Office that the program will be brought to a standstill. That could be too big a dilemma for a divided Administration, as the Soviets seem to recognize. It may be why they have left themselves the option of wrapping up INF with Reagan and waiting to do a deal on strategic arms control with his successor...