By RIA Novosti
Washington : US Senator Wayne Allard has called for interceptor missiles to be deployed on satellites in permanent orbit so that the US can rapidly respond to threats anywhere on earth.
Washington has not given serious consideration to deploying weapons in space since the Strategic Defence Initiative proposed by then president Ronald Reagan in 1983 – nicknamed Star Wars. The idea was scrapped under Bill Clinton.
“A layer of space-based interceptors would enable a global on-call missile defence capability that could produce a timely response to rapidly evolving situations. It would enable the US to be prepared for all types of threats that could develop out of unpredictable locations,” the senator, who chairs the Senate Space Caucus, told the National Space Symposium in Colorado Tuesday.
The space-based interceptors would add to the existing missile defence system, which is already proving controversial. The US plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe have brought relations with Moscow to a post-Cold War low.
Allard said a space defence system would meet modern threats, protecting against unpredictable attacks from small, well-funded groups.
The country needs interceptors that “would be able to reach targets more rapidly and are capable of destroying enemy missiles in the boost phase”.
“I think this makes more sense than going back into the ‘assured mutual destruction’ mentality of times gone by.”
However, he rejected comparisons with the Strategic Defence initiative. “This is not anything like the Star Wars,” Allard said.