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Star Wars = Star Death

By Chris Deisinger

The former director of what became known in 1983 as Star Wars research appeared in Milwaukee in late April to vent his opposition to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) proposal.

LTC Robert Bowman served as Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the Air Force from 1974 through 1978. As such he oversaw research and evaluation of proposed anti-satellite and anti-ballistic missile weapons, lasers, directed energy weapons, surveillance satellites and advanced space vehicle subsystems: the whole ball of wax that Reagan is proposed to stick together into a shield against ballistic missiles. Following his distinguished 22 years Air Force career (he flew over a hundred combat missions in Vietnam) Dr. Bowman managed advanced space programs for General Dynamics and was a vice president of the Space Communications Company. He currently heads the Institute of Space and Security Studies, which condemns Star Wars proposals as foolish, impractical and extremely dangerous.

Bowman entitled his talk "Star Wars: Not Just a Waste of Money." He analyzed and ridiculed the idea that we could ever develop a foolproof defense against ballistic missiles, even if the U.S. invested trillions of dollars in the process. Like many other critics, he pointed out that the Russians would have a far easier and less expensive task screwing up such a complex and unproven system than the U.S. would have constructing it. Bowman estimated that the Russians would have a cost advantage of 1000 to 1 in overcoming SDI through countermeasures. For example, the mirrors that would have to orbited to bounce laser beams around the globe in order to zap missiles could easily be fouled by dust or oil droplets in an intersecting orbit.

Bowman emphasized, however, that the inadequacy of Star Wars as a defensive system is simply not the point. Although Star Wars is advertised as a defensive anti-missile system with the unique ability to destroy during the vulnerable boost phase, when missiles are slow and visible and have not yet deployed their payloads into a cloud of warheads and decoys, it could only be really effective if it were employed in the "pre-boost phase" when the missiles are still in the silos. In other words, Star Wars is meant to be used a first-strike offensive weapon.

"The only believable use of Star Wars would be in the hands of an aggressor," said Bowman. Star Wars could be used, he said, to seize military control of space and then threaten any target on earth with instant incineration by directed energy weapons. "It has been our policy for decades," he said, "to go to war to prevent the Russians from deploying such weapons in space and doubtless the Russians have the same policy." Deployment of Star Wars he asserted, probably guarantees nuclear war. The only hope, according to Bowman, is to ensure that nobody gets a Star Wars system.

"To this day the military has never recommended a Star Wars system," said Bowman. The problem, he said is that "the Reagan administration is run by the Heritage Foundation" and ideological hardliners like Richard Perle, formerly of the Committee for a Present Danger and now Assistant Secretary of Defense.

While Expressing tremendous concern over the dangerous course pursued by the Reagan administration, Bowman felt that none of Reagan's potential successors, including the Republicans, were as sold on the idea or as ignorant of its risks. He expressed his hope that public pressure on Congress will cause it "to grab the purse strings to preserve the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the bedrock of the arms control process" and halt Star Wars.

Bowman's talk provided the rare opportunity to hear an eminently qualified expert speak on the most important question of all: human survival. It was sponsored by a broad range of peace and public affairs groups as well as the UWM Physics Department and Faculty and was attended by several hundred people. It was, however, universally ignored by the mainstream Milwaukee media.

Chris Deisinger