However, in 1967, the US, the UK and Russia agreed a treaty which banned countries from placing nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan abandoned the treaty when he launched the Strategic Defense Initiative to protect the US from nuclear missiles.
The system, which was intended to track and destroy inter-continental ballistic missiles, was nicknamed Star Wars. A range of systems, including lasers in outer space to take out the missiles at their maximum trajectory when they left the earth’s atmosphere, was envisioned. Tens of billions of dollars was earmarked for the scheme.
The ambitious and expensive project was meant to protect the US, but the missile defence shield was widely criticised for being unrealistic."
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NATO Missile Defense for Europe
NATO has agreed to provide ballistic missile defense or BMD for all of Europe. This NATO BMD will protect NATO (European and American) military forces in Europe. It will also – for the very first time – protect the civilian population throughout Europe from ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction launched from the Middle East.
Much of this NATO missile defense for Europe – known as the European Phased Adaptive Approach – will actually be provided by the United States armed forces. This will include seaborne AEGIS missile defense on board US Navy ships in the Mediterranean, as well as land based radars and interceptor missiles.
This e-book describes how NATO missile defense for Europe will be organized and implemented.
