ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the Key technical issues associated with all some space-based ballistic missile defense concepts. Space-based lasers offer the promise of destroying the offensive boosters during launch by depositing a lethal amount of radiant energy in the missile's skin from space, essentially instantaneously that is at the speed-of-light. The most credible space-based ballistic missile defense would be one which involves the use of components which are within the present or a short term projection of the state-of-the-art in sensors and chemically propelled interceptor missiles. Since the mid-1960s, the US has maintained a program designed to study the application of particle beam weapons to ballistic missile defense. Senator Wallop9 indicated that each laser would carry enough fuel for the laser to have "1000 shots, meaning each could cope with the theoretical contingency of a thousand missiles launched beneath it in an almost simultaneous launch."
