LASERS, MASERS AND TRAIL BLAZERS
The
article deals with the scenario of a Boeing 747-400F that flies at an altitude of 40000ft, and containing a chemical
LASER that can fry the rocket motor of a ballistic
missile that is in its boost stage, and it can do so at a range of more than 400 km, a truly profound futuristic scenario. As regards whether in time to come, we would really see a weapon system that is based on a laser beam with destructive force, the article asserts that such a system already exists.
As to where it all started, the article explains that it started with,
star Wars. Not the Star Wars in the 1977 Film of George Lucas, but Ronald Reagan's, Star Wars, being The
Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) programme.
During 1983 the U.S. President at the time, Ronald Reagan, and a number of scientists and engineers embarked on a venture that blazed a trial that pushed the U.S. into the modern missile defence era. Reagan did so when he initiated, what would later officially be called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Despite fierce criticism and opposition, he was able to confirm during a speech in Washington D.C. on the tenth anniversary of the announcement of the SDI, that innovative systems capable of providing effective and affordable defences against missile attacks anywhere in the world, had been developed.
But thereafter, years of expenditures cuts on research and development ensued during the Clinton administration. However, an incident occurred that caused the Clinton administration to rethink its policy on expenditures cuts and to begin taking an interest in missile defence. The incident was the launching of a North Korean Toepo Dong 1 rocket that was a three-stage missile, possessing the capability of hitting portions of the Western and Central United States.
There was also reference in 1997 by Bill Hillaby, to an incident off the West Coast of the United States, concerning a laser device. The incident was the suspected use, by a Soviet merchant ship, of a laser device to hamper observations of its movements by Canadian Sea King crew.
On 5 May 1998 The Pentagon released particulars of a contract that was awarded to TRW Inc. Redondo Beach, California regarding, inter alia, research and development pertaining to laser technology development regarding threats in the form of short-range rockets and artillery, cruise missiles, and pop-up helicopters.
It is contended that only an airborne laser can destroy a hostile theater ballistic missile (TBM) while it is still in the highly vulnerable boost phase of flight, before separation of its warhead.
This article also deals in some detail with the origin of the Star Wars label for the SDI and the political and journalistic manoeuvres unleashed by the SDI. In that regard FitzGerald contends in her book, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War, that Reagen was unable to distinguish, in his own mind, between the fiction created in Hollywood films and the real world, and that this caused him to believe in science-fiction programmes for the defence of America.
The true facts however emerges from a web site of the Center for Defense Information, and an article by Colonel Daniel Smith, USA, Chief of Research, titled, The Chronology of U.S. National Missile Defense Programs, which revealed that the Reagen style defence initiative was already mooted in 1945.
Donald R. Baucom, a military historian at The Pentagon, made an exhaustive study in his book, The Origins of SDI, 1944-1983. It is clear from Dr. Baucom's study that Reagen's defence initiative was merely a perpetuation of existing U.S. strategy and not a new gimmick introduced by Reagen.
Peter Kramer, a lecturer in Film Studies at the University of East Anglia stated in an article published in the March 1999 edition of History Today that The Origins of SDI shows that, far from being a Hollywood fantasy, Reagan's vision of missile defence was in line with an important strin US strategic thinking.
In subsequent decades, the notion of effective missile defence was gradually displaced by the principle of nuclear deterrence (appropriately known as MAD, for Mutually Assured Destruction). However, in the late 1970s, interest in strategic defence systems re-emerged in certain scientific, military and political circles, which exerted a strong influence on Reagan.
As regards previous use of lasers in warfare, it appears that Britain has used lasers during the Falklands conflict and helicopter pilots were laser beamed in Bosnia. Although it appeared during the briefing that the possibility exists that the source of the laser beam may have been a toy laser, it also became clear that that there were other laser incidents during the Bosnia operation.
Reagen caused the demise of communism. Reagen added the finishing touches to the idea of an effective, modern, missile defence system. But, in my opinion, of paramount importance is the fact that Reagen stopped the MADness. The MADness as in MAD for Mutually Assured Destruction. Peter Kramer stated that Reagen also simplified complex political issues, bringing them down to the level of common sense, and asking whether it would not be better to save lives than to avenge them. He asks whether it is not worth every investment necessary to free the world from the threat of nuclear war.
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