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Excerpts From the Eastport Report: Computers and SDI
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11045 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1986 |
1,465 Words |
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The Eastport Study Group
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The SDIO [Strategic Defense Initiative Organization] Panel on Computing in Support of Battle Management was appointed "to devise an appropriate computational/communication response to the [strategic defense battle-management] problem and make recommendations for a research and technology development program to implement the response…"
SDIO planners consider the Strategic Defense Initiative a potentially very long-range effort. The current research phase is aimed at providing, during the next several years, the best information possible concerning the feasibility and cost of alternative new approaches to ballistic missile defense…
The panel does not expect small--scale and/or early technology deployments that might occur during the 1990s to provide a "near-perfect" defense. Rather, initial deployments influence our strategic position largely in their ability to intercept enough incoming warheads to enhance Soviet attack uncertainties. Possible Soviet countermeasures such as fast-burn rockets or decoys also reduce the useful payload of their missiles.
The physical dimensions of the battle-management problem are well understood. A ballistic missile can first be intercepted during its boost phase, which lasts for only several minutes. During this phase the missile emits enormous amounts of energy with a distinctive spectral signature and is accordingly easy to detect and locate. The missile is also a relatively large and fragile target. When the boost phase is completed, the missile releases a blue containing on the order to ten reentry vehicles (RVs). The bus then launches the RVs, each into a slightly different ballistic trajectory. Future buses developed in response to defensive systems can be expected to launch both RVs and decoys. Interception of the missile in the boost phase, or of the bust, offers the advantage not only of dealing with a larger target than an RV, but also of eliminating the many individual targets--RVs and decoys--that are launched from the bus of a single missile.
During the mid-course phase, the RVs and decoys follow a ballistic trajectory. This phase lasts for 20-30 minutes for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The ability to distinguish RVs from decoys is obviously advantageous, and SDIO is researching this problem. If the heavy RVs and light decoys are not correctly distinguished during the mid-course phase, whatever of them remain finally sort themselves out as soon as they start to reenter the earth's atmosphere. The final opportunity for defense, the terminal phase, may last as
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