President G.W. Bush and Missile Defense in the Aftermath of 9/11

This article examines the issue of missile defense as a protective shield. The issue of missile defense is not new, but has ebbed and flowed from the political consciousness during the Cold War. The events of September 11th added impetus to missile defense, in that it raised public awareness that the United States was not defended from ballistic missile attack, even more so when those very missiles could be fitted with chemical, biological and nuclear warheads. In this chapter the issue of missile defense is examined in the context of the Cold War with the Strategic Defense Initiative through its metamorphosis into the Global Protection Against Limited Strikes during President Bush's administration. To its eventual formulation into the Ground-Based Missile Defense system developed under President G.W. Bush, and led to the politically sensitive decision to withdraw from the ABM Treaty in December 2001. The protective shield that missile defense promises appears finally to being achieved in Alaska. Key Words: SDI; Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; Pebbles; GPALS; DAB; Strategic Defense Initiative Organization; Ballistic Missile Defense Organization; Missile Defense Act; National Missile Defense Act. The Strategic Defense Initiative The original task of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was to research the feasibility of a missile defense capable of breaking up a determined Soviet nuclear attack on the United States that could consist of thousands of nuclear weapons. This Phase I of the SDI program was to ensure that a large percentage of these nuclear weapons would be destroyed. Although the military requirements established for SDI in the Reagan Administration are classified, it has been reported that Phase I would have been able to shoot down 30 percent of all warheads fired in a first strike2 and 50 percent of the warheads carried on the SS-18 Satan missile, whose combination of accuracy and yield made it the most dangerous counterforce threat in the Soviet arsenal.3 This would mean that a Soviet war-planner could not successfully plan for a first strike, since he would be unsure of how effective his first strike could be. Phase I was to be only the start of a larger defense system, to meet possible changes in the Soviet threat.4 The SDI Mission The SDI program from its conception in 1983 eventually changed its focus significantly. At first, it focused on the threat of a massive Soviet attack, but by 1991 it had switched to protection against much more limited strikes from anywhere on the globe. During each of these mission periods, there were significant changes to the program, based on policy reviews and decisions by the President, the secretary of Defense, and the Congress. The first phase and change to the SDI program began with the development of the technology period up until late 1987. The next major step that followed this period was Phase I with the Space Based Interceptor, and the final step before the switch to GPALS, was Phase I with Pebbles.5 Despite all these changes those steps were all known as Phase I, since they were intended to defend against a massive Soviet attack, although their architectures were subject to changes. After Phase I was proposed, the SDIO began investigating a new, innovative space-based interceptor, known as Brilliant Pebbles. These were to be a constellation of up to thousands of individual interceptors, each with its own surveillance capability and enough power to operate autonomously, within its own field of vision. Pebbles was a competitor to the Space-Based Interceptor design concept, which was to house several interceptors together in a large garage or carrier vehicle. Pebbles responded to the DAB concerns over the high cost of the Space Based Interceptor garage or carrier vehicle. Primarily, however it allayed concerns relating to the survivability of the Space-Based Interceptor garage. …