You made some factual errors. 1991 should read "Bush realizes Reagan had gone insane, and was likely being haunted by Nixon's ghost, so to save face he gives the project theoretically attainable goals."

Don't worry, we all make mistakes.

A time line would have been better i think.

Got to love all of the phallic looking objects in that photo that is supposedly of Soviet MIG's in Cuba. You have to wonder if the U.S.S.R. did that on purpose in the hopes of getting a picture of Ronald Reagan next to a photo of it.

... and, after hundreds of billions of dollars, it still doesn't work.

"El Presidente saying words during his SDI speeh" Speeh is not a word.

@Darrone: Another way it could be put was "Since the first goal of the grand strategy which the SDI program was a part had been accomplished (bankrupting the U.S.S.R. through competitive spending), G.H.W. Bush set theoretically attainable engineering goals."

Memos and papers that been been released since the fall of the Soviet Union made it pretty clear that they were scared of SDI, and though the Americans knew something they didn't (i.e., how to make it work), and that the military spending on competitive programs was contributory to their economic collapse.

@innout3x3: Great, you can make a living as a shitty proofreader for insta-blogs.

84, eh? That's about the time he mentioned the term AIDS and noted that it's a real disease and not something that can easily be shrugged off as "GRID". Mind you, HIV was around from before he took the reigns, but nobody but Reagan had the "courage" to acknowledge its existence as a potential epidemic.

747s with freakin' laser beams! If that's not called "success" then at the very least it's just way bitchin.

They budgeted over $160 billion for SDI originally. The centerpiece was a fleet of satellite missile launchers. Today you wouldn't even think of investing $10 billion in a jet fighter yet these guys were willing to cough up $160 billion in a space program. If that's what it takes to survive, it's time to move to China.

For half the money, we could just bribe all our enemies. The other half could be spent on more valuable things like beer and bacon for everyone on the planet. Win-win.

Historical clarification:

The Israelis were going to retaliate against Iraq because the Iraqis were launching _ballistic missiles_ at the Israelis. The accuracy of the PATRIOT system was more or less irrelevant to this simple fact. The PATRIOT system was part of the carrot the coalition forces gave to the Israelis to keep them from striking (and thus alienating the Arab states in the coalition). In the long-run, it was probably the right move for the Israelis to not hit Iraq on their own, but the politicos took a lot of flack for it at the time.

Well you also have to remember that the Aegis interception system, which was put into service way before it was ready also shot down at least 2 airliners.

Simply because the system couldn't tell the difference between an attack fighter heading at a ship carrying the system and an airliner taking off and climbing to operational altitude.

So i would assume that it being able to take out a satellite now means that its finally ready, because several officials objected to it being put into service in the 80's because it wasn't ready yet.
( it then shot down an airliner to prove them right )

@dOk: What's your source for that? I don't remember the 80s so well.

If I might - I didnt remember this either.

Navy Missile Downs Iranian Jetliner 88'

[www.washingtonpost.com]

Aww the good old days... When we knew that the bad guys were in Russia and not in The White House.

SDI not only did not work, it can never work. It is too easily overwhelmed by cheap countermeasures such as balloons, which in space are indistinguishable from re-entry vehicles.
Read Ted Postel for the straight dope.

Contrary to popular belief "missile defense" is actually a first strike weapon that will allow America to attack any country and then neutralize the counter-strike.

@Gary_7vn:

Exactly. For the huge cost of one anti-missile missile, the other side could launch 10 missiles each armed with 10 MIRVs. That's probalby why SDI's emphasis has moved from an anti-missile "shield" to killing satellites and anti-aircraft measures. Much easier to accomplish. Uncle Sam is still working on anti-missile technology to take care of the occasional rogue missile from N. Korea or Iran, but not for the massive attack Russia and maybe China are capable of.

@ninjagin: Are you kidding me? Do some research. It does work.

BTW, horribly biased article with many innaccuracies.

@dj-anakin: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, I would love to see something. Please post your data. And not something a .gov source. These are the same people who say that there is no global warming.

Gary_7vn: If a missile defense system causes the opposition to have to change tactics to overcome it, it is obviously working. If it causes the opposition to have to increase the number of missiles it fields by a factor of ten in order to overcome it, it is working pretty well.

dj-anakin: I agree, this was a puerile article full of ridiculous bias. When did Gizmodo turn into Slashdot?

@JonAcheson: The opposition as you call them would simply have to smuggle their nuclear weapons into the United States and detonate them there.

How would they do that you ask? Simple, they would hide them insides bales of marijuana.

The counter measures to to SDI do not include making more missiles, although that is an option. The countermeasures mean making balloons, which last time I checked were not very expensive.

What exactly is "puerile" about this article? Bias? What bias? Do you contend that the Patriot worked? It did not.

Besides, who is this opposition of which you speak? MAD is still in effect at all times. The Russians know this. The Chinese know this,.and despite all the paranoia about North Korea, Kim Jong-Il knows this.

The other purpose of SDI is the militarization of space. SDI is being used to develop space based weapons platforms which are illegal under international law as they are so incredibly destabilizing.

@Gary_7vn: So by your logic, if the government was onboard with the the concept of Global Warming, we could better believe their data about SDI? Otherwise, what's your point?

And you might well apply the same "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" rule to global warming too.

Thanks for addressing all my points. If you don't believe in global warming I question your capacity for analyzing data.

My point is the government lies. Hows that search for the WMD going?

Your reply is non-responsive.

Wow. There are some surprising posts in this thread. The fact is, our missile defense system is working. There are many test intercepts now that don't even make the news anymore. The Aegis wasn't design to intercept such a slow moving target, so it's success (satellite intercept) was a little surprising.

Gary_7vn - are you bright enough to recognize the difference between bad intel data and lying?

The other post pertaining to "cheap balloon countermeasures" easily defeating the system - give me a break. You don't think we've worked through that problem?

@endo: Your post is entirely fact free. Please give me some "facts" if you want to have an intelligent conversation. No, I don't "think" "we've" worked through the problem yet, I know. Who is "we" anyway, do you work on SDI? I thought not.

Where do you get "intel" are you in the intelligence community? No, of course not. Read Robert Bowmen, and Ted Postel at MIT. Then get back to me. Or perhaps you think people at MIT are not bright either.

You embarrass yourself posting insulting, pointless comments. If you want to take me on you'll have to do better than that punk.

@endo: Hey Endo, if you really want to know about the efficacy of missile defense, this video will tell you everything you need to know.

+ Watch video

>> You embarrass yourself posting insulting, pointless comments.
uh, ok. You've demonstrated your intellect and maturity quite well with your next post.

It's not important to me to boost my own ego by saying where my sources of information are from. Think about it.

@endo: I can't think, I am stupid, that was your diagnosis. And besides you don't have any facts, let alone "intel". Your last post is proof of that.

When you start with insults, you get insults. I learned that in kindergarten.

Made you look.