ABSTRACT
The American programme of research into strategic defence technology is known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). In addition, the Report will explore two associated issues which are of major importance to the Alliance: the manner in which strategic defence programmes relate to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the nature of Alliance participation in the United States' Strategic Defense Initiative. A ballistic missile defence system must be able to locate and track hostile missiles with sufficient precision to facilitate interception. Kinetic energy weapons are a more conventional interception method in that they rely on physical impact to destroy their targets. Devices in this category include a variety of guns and missiles intended to perform interception at all phases of a ballistic missile's trajectory. The United States and the Soviet Union are both conducting research programmes in strategic defence technologies, and the Soviet Union actually possesses some operational defensive systems.
