Global Protection v. Limited Nuclear Strikes

The House Republican Research committee conducted a forum concerning the current status of the strategic defense initiative and U.S. military policy. The strategic defense initiative is a military defense system designed to eliminate enemy missiles before they reach their target. The ground based system is planned to function in a similar manner to the Patriot missile defense system used in Israel and Saudi Arabia against Iraqi SCUD missiles during the Persian Gulf war. Tests are underway on the space shuttle to create a missile defense system based in space that will be able to destroy enemy missiles in flight by sensing and using their rocket plumes for targeting purposes. Mr. Cooper described the progress and changes in the strategic defense initiative in the past year. The focus of the initiative was changed in late 1990 after the end of the Cold War from the repulsion of an all-out Soviet ballistic missile attack with nuclear warheads to a defense against limited nuclear strikes i close