| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
For more than three decades, beginning soon after the end of World War II, the
United States and the Soviet Union faced off against each other. The concept
of "mutual assured destruction"-MAD, the U.S. threat of massive retaliation
to a Soviet first strike-became America's Cold War de facto strategic defense
policy. In March 1983, however, President Ronald Reagan asked whether ballistic
missiles could be destroyed before they reached the United States or its allies,
thus catalyzing efforts for a national ballistic-missile-defense program that would
undermine the need for MAD. That same year, the U.S. N avy commissioned USS
Ticonderoga (CG 47), the first of what is to become a fleet of more than eighty
Aegis warships. In 2012, these trends have converged, and Aegis ballistic-missile
defense (BMD) is an increasingly important component of a robust national
BMD System (BMDS).
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