The Budgetary Impact of Limiting Strategic Defense Initiative Programs

Abstract

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) has been a controversial program fromits inception. Critics and supporters have argued over the goals of the program and its chances of success. Under the Administration's plans, SDI also promises to become increasingly expensive during a period when the total defense budget may be reduced. In fact, for 1992 the Congress provided the highest-ever funding on antimissile defenses and, for the first time, set a target date for deploying a defense against long-range ballistic missiles. The Congress will therefore continue to confront difficult choices: how much to spend on SDI research and, if budgets are to be held down, which of various alternative programs to pursue.This memorandum seeks to inform the Congressional debate on SDI by summarizing the Administration's SDI proposal and presenting three alternative programs, which vary widely in their costs and the defense capability that would result. In keeping with the mandate of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide objective analysis, the memorandum makes no recommendations.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1992
Accession Number
AD1001734

Entities

People

  • Raymond Hall

Organizations

  • Congressional Budget Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anti-Ballistic Missiles
  • Area Defense
  • Arms Control
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Command And Control
  • Defense Systems
  • Ground Based
  • Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles
  • Radar
  • Space Based
  • Strategic Defense Initiative
  • Theater Ballistic Missiles
  • Theater Missile Defense
  • Treaties
  • United States
  • Ussr
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Missile Defense Systems.
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting
  • Strategic Security Studies