A provision in the defense policy bill being debated by the House this week calls for a space-based missile defense system, reminiscent of the Strategic Defense Initiative from the 1980s.
The bill also calls for strengthening America’s overall missile defense system, going beyond the standard posture of “limited” defense.
“Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of the act, the director of the Missile Defense Agency … shall commence planning for the concept definition, design, research, development, engineering evaluation, and test of a space-based ballistic missile intercept and defeat layer to the ballistic missile defense system,” the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act says.
The move was first reported by CQ.
The space-based shield provision also calls for planning a “space test bed … for a missile interceptor capability” within 60 days of the act’s passage.
In the overall missile defense section, the bill goes beyond the standard wording of a “limited” defense and calls for “a robust layered missile defense system” that would defend U.S. territory, allies and “deployed forces.” The defense would be built “against the developing and increasingly complex ballistic missile threat.”
The House is expected to finish voting on defense policy amendments Wednesday evening.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, referred to as “Star Wars” at the time, to shield the U.S. against the Soviet Union. It was later abandoned.
