“Military superiority is not a birthright granted to us,” the Pentagon’s freshly-released Missile Defense Review reads in the preface. “It is the product of diligence, creativity, and sustained investment.” Most recently, this creativity and sustained investment may mean installing space-based sensors to monitor and help destroy incoming missiles. The U.S. is currently bolstering its ground-based capacities, and any space-based technology is only in its research phase and would not become part of an active defense system for several years. The proposed technology is reminiscent of, albeit more limited than, the “Star Wars” (Strategic Defense Initiative) plan announced under the Reagan administration in 1983 but later ended after the end of the Cold War. Possible risks arising from the pursuit of this technology, like others, is its perception as a threat by China, Russia, and North Korea, and a future arms race as China and Russia continue to advance their capabilities and develop new weapons.
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