TECHNICAL TERMS AND ISSUES

This glossary of concepts, approaches and weapons is designed to provide brief insight into their status and their shortcomings. It is organized alphabetically. Additional contributions are welcome.

• Anti-Satellite Devices (ASATs). There is increasing talkabout using ground based or space-based systems to protect oursatellites and to attack those of other countries. Among the variousflavors: bodyguard satellites that would defend ours; kineticenergy ASATs that could be launched; and space mines that couldbe moved into the proximity of enemy satellites and activatedin a time of war.
• Boost-phase Missile Defense. This is a very different approachthan the Space Based National Missile Defense that the U.S. governmenthas pursued since 1996. The Boost Phase approach attempts to destroya missile while it is still in the initial boost phase. Firedfrom an off shore ship or near-by country, the interceptor wouldstrive to track the booster rocket and destroy it within minutesof it being launched. There would be no need to find the warheadin space and destroy it, rather than a decoy. Among the shortcoming of this approach is the need to make a very early detectionof the ICBM launch, to make a very fast decision to fire the interceptorand be relatively close to the launch site. The strategy wouldnot work easily with large countries like China or Russia giventheir ability to move launch site.
• Decoys. These are designed to confuse the missile defensesystem so that it can not identify and destroy a warhead. Manybelieve that the Pentagon has failed to appreciate how easilydecoys can have their shapes and surfaces adjusted, thereby outwittingthe kill vehicle. One suggested possible approach, for example,would be to use balloons for decoys, and to place the actual warheadin one of the balloons. The Missile Defense Agency and its predecessorshave been charged with testing scenarios that have only easilyidentified decoys. There is little evidence to date that a foolproof way can be developed to distinguish warheads from sophisticated decoys.
• Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle. This is the device that ismade by Ratheon, and launched into space by a Boeing rocket. Itis supposed to identify the enemy warhead, as opposed to decoys,approach, and then destroy it by impact. Infrared sensors on thekill vehicle are supposed to be able to distinguish the warheadfrom decoys by measuring fluctuations in brightness. MIT ProfessorTheodore Postol believes that the Pentagon has not been forthrightabout the results of tests held to date. (see Why Missile DefenseWon't Work, MIT Technology Review, April 2002
• Ground Based Radar. This radar is supposed to pick up theattack missiles when they rise above the horizon, three minutesor so after the missile engines have shut down. Depending uponthe radar accuracy, it may be able to detect the upper stage ofthe rocket, the war heads and the decoys. The goal is to be ableto launch the interceptors within 10 minutes of the missile attack;however, the radar is not able to steer the kill vehicle at theend.
• Infrared Early Warning Satellites. These satellites areintended to detect the exhaust of a missile 30 to 60 seconds afterit has been fired from the ground. They can track only until themissile engine shuts off, typically 200 or 300 kilometers in altitude.The missile is then supposed to be picked up by the ground radar.
• Multi-layered Defense. This is the concept of trying tohit an attacking missile early in the boost phase, as well asonce the warhead has gotten into space.
• Strategic Defense Initiative. President Ronald Regan's original effort to defend against ballistic missiles. Knownby most as "star wars."
• UAV. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles such as the RQ-1 Predatoror the Global Hawk. Sen, Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii and recent chairof the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on InternationalSecurity, Proliferation and Federal Services has urged the BushAdministration to restrict exports to other nations. (David Isenberg