Star Wars S.D.I.
Star Wars
“feel the force young Luke” and all that stuff.
But this is NOT about that Star Wars, this little snippet is about S,D.I. Or the Strategic Defence Initiative, a U.S. Missile defence system proposed under President Ronald Reagan on March 23rd 1983.
This immediately earned him the nickname “Ronnie Raygun” to much hilarity from his opponents.
Not much hilarity in the Soviet Union though, because the principle of the American S.D.I. Or Star Wars was a very old principle indeed, that of ballistics, which was also of considerable interest to Leonardo Da Vinci.
The principle is this - if an object is truly ballistic, subject only to it's own velocity and the force of gravity, it's trajectory can be predicted if the start and end points are known.
Since the U.S. Had a pretty good idea of the end point for Russian Inter Continental Ballistic missiles, and a reasonable idea of their launch points and capabilities, it could be determined that there was a window in space, at their apogee which they would HAVE to pass through.
EASY ! Just wait for the missiles to turn up, in that window, as they must (Da Vinci says so) and then just play Whack A Mole with them – Job Done !
Except there are a few , what in these modern times would be called “Issues” to be addressed first.
The Russian ICBM's at apogee (top of their flight would be ballistic , which is a good thing, but would be traveling at a velocity of about 25,000 km/hr
That is FAST , and the window of opportunity is correspondingly small.
The window in space is wide, and by comparison the individual missiles are VERY small.
So, not so easy at all then.
The problem would push the limits of the computing and tracking equipment available at the time.
NO existing weapon systems were up to the job.
Hence – Star Wars – science fiction – at that time.
What was needed :
Faster computers
Faster and more accurate tracking systems
Military Satellites
Faster weapons, capable of:
Intercepting a small missile in a big area of space in a small time frame , again and again and again.
Hmm, not much of an ask then.
In the U.S., when they want the seemingly impossible done, government funding is made available to any credible establishment who it is thought might be able to do the job.
University and Corporate research grants were placed and all sorts of new ideas were produced.
Lasers
Rail Guns
Kinetic Energy Weapons (High speed Chaff Clouds)
Throw enough money at a problem and results (might) appear.
So that was Star Wars, which was discontinued in 1993 (Ten years after commencement) , at a total cost of $40 Billion. Four billion a year for ten years is very little to the U.S. Economy , but they ended up with nothing to show for it.
Or did they ?
Military lasers and rail guns may have a familiar ring to them, as may high speed kinetic chaff clouds.
So Star Wars DID spur military development in several areas and some of those weapons are on the battlefield now.
As an anecdote, for which I have no verification, a group of Doctorate students had an idea, and decided to apply for an SDI funding, which they received. Just out of pure cheek, they also asked if they could have access to some quite expensive military equipment, and got that as well.
One of them said it was only meant to be a bit of a lark, and they expected nothing. Instead it turned out to be all their birthdays rolled in to one.
So that was Star Wars, but it is only now we are beginning to “Feel The Force”
Above: A shipboard anti drone/missile laser system. A direct descendant of the SDI concept.
Right: A shipboard rail gun. A high velocity kinetic weapon originally proposed for the S.D.I.
So far, the high velocity "Chaff" gun is yet to make an appearance, since it does not lend itself to use in atmosphere, but who knows ?
A rail chaff gun would be ideal for close-in anti missile defence . A rail shotgun maybe ?
Opposite, a Gatling type close-in Anti Missile System.
