Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ at 40: Battle of the satellites
by Agence France-Presse March 23, 2023 in Technology News
Forty years after US president Ronald Reagan stunned the nation and world with his “Star Wars” plan to take nuclear competition into outer space, a new battle of the satellites has emerged in the stratosphere.
Largely because it far outpaced technology at the time, very little became of Reagan’s March 23, 1983 declaration that the United States would head to space to seek absolute supremacy in the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Nevertheless space ultimately has become a major theater of strategic competition — just not the way Reagan envisioned. Instead of missiles launched from orbit to attack rivals, thousands of satellites are now the focus of sometimes tense dynamics between the United States, Soviet Union successor Russia, and China.
Also defying Reagan’s vision, the US does not have any clear advantage: China especially is showing its ability to match or even lead the United States.
‘Hope for our children’
https://www.defencetalk.com/reagans-star-wars-at-40-battle-of-the-satellites-79964/
