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MDAA Alert:
"We Know it is"
March 23, 2020

An unarmed Minuteman III ICBM is test launched in front of the Ronald Reagan Missile
Defense Site at Vandenberg AFB, California on December 17, 2013. (Photo: DVIDS -
U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Yvonne Morales)
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Dear Members and Friends,
a
Thirty-seven years ago tonight, l was a graduating senior at the University of Southern
California taking a class under Dr. William Van Cleave [[link removed]],
with Dr. Rob Soofer [[link removed]]
as the Graduate Assistant, gaining a graduate certificate in Defense and Strategic
Studies. Dr. William Van Cleave, who was Governor Ronald Reagan's National Security
Advisor during the 1980 Presidential Campaign, during the past year had introduced
me to Dr. Edward Teller [[link removed]],
one of President Ronald Reagan's chief scientists on the White House Science Counsel.
President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) speech [[link removed]]
of vision, magnitude, and leadership to change the world with ways to defeat the
greatest threat to mankind was monumental in shifting paradigms and destinies.
The speech had no solutions given or suggested, it was a call to action to break
the norm of reliance on mutually assured destruction (MAD) [[link removed]]
with the confidence and belief in Americans to find the solutions. As successive
President's prior - President Richard Nixon, President Gerald Ford, and President
Jimmy Carter did not believe in missile defenses and did not believe technologies
could be developed to defeat nuclear ballistic missiles. President Reagan brought
credibility and made it honorable to work on missile defense thus bringing some
of the best and brightest with this vision.
"I'm taking an important first step. I am directing a comprehensive and intensive
effort to define a long-term research and development program to begin to achieve
our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles.
This could pave the way for arms control measures to eliminate the weapons themselves.
We seek neither military superiority nor political advantage. Our only purpose --
one all people share -- is to search for ways to reduce the danger of nuclear war."
- President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983
"Free people must voluntarily, through open debate and democratic means, meet the
challenge that totalitarians pose by compulsion. It's up to us, in our time, to
choose and choose wisely between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace
and freedom and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best
while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day." - President Ronald Reagan
on March 23, 1983
"Yet, current technology has attained a level of sophistication where it's reasonable
for us to begin this effort. It will take years, probably decades of efforts on
many fronts. There will be failures and setbacks, just as there will be successes
and breakthroughs. And as we proceed, we must remain constant in preserving the
nuclear deterrent and maintaining a solid capability for flexible response. But
isn't it worth every investment necessary to free the world from the threat of nuclear
war? We know it is." - President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983
The legacy of SDI brought to bear two great technical concepts that stand as the
rudimentary pillars and physics of today's deployed missile defense systems around
the world: kinetic energy intercept and the use of space for missile sensors and
intercepts. The legacy of SDI is marked in history as it was a major contributor
to forcing the Soviet Union to breakup in 1989 as the Russians economically could
not compete with the United States on missile defense.
One of the solutions but never implemented, "Brilliant Pebbles [[link removed]]"
was presented to President Reagan by the White House Science Council five years
later by Dr. Teller, Dr. Lowell Wood and Dr. Greg Canavan put forth the concept
of many thousands of small satellite interceptors with sensors in low earth orbit
using kinetic energy intercept as not to carry extra weight of a warhead but have
the accuracy to run into the incoming missile during the boost phase of threat missile's
assent into its apogee in space. The reason for the high numbers was the lack of
range each satellite had with technology of that time and to have a significant
number over the Soviet Union covered at all times. What followed the never deployed
"Brilliant Pebbles" was a de-weaponized small satellite constellation that was called
"Brilliant Eyes". That too did not get implemented but ended up through many adaptations
and bureaucracy as operational demonstrators called the Space Tracking and Surveillance
System (STSS), which is two satellites that have been operating for the Missile
Defense Agency (MDA) since September 2009. Today the Space Development Agency (SDA)
overseeing MDA is asking Congress to fund, test, develop and deploy a small satellite
constellation of missile discrimination sensors to track hypersonic glide vehicles
(HGV) and ballistic missiles. It is called the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking
Space Sensor (HBTSS) and requested $99.6 million for next year fiscal year 2021.
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, escorted by Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering III, at the
time Director of the Missile Defense Agency, helps unveil a bust of President Ronald
Reagan at the dedication ceremony of the Ronald Reagan Missile Defense Site at Vandenberg
AFB, California on April 10, 2006. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley.)
We have taken great honor to provide tribute to President Ronald Reagan's vision
as we created with Mrs. Nancy Reagan the Ronald Reagan Missile Defense Site, that
is a permanent memorial at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California overseeing the
Pacific Ocean and four of the 44 current Ground Based Interceptors (GBIs) defending
the United States of America.
Leadership, vision, courage and belief to negate and defeat the threat to the world
was as admirable and doable 37 years ago, as it is today. It takes a first step!
We recognize that first step.
"I'm taking an important first step. I am directing a comprehensive and intensive
effort to define a long-term research and development program to begin to achieve
our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles.
This could pave the way for arms control measures to eliminate the weapons themselves.
We seek neither military superiority nor political advantage. Our only purpose --
one all people share -- is to search for ways to reduce the danger of nuclear war."
- President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983
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Respectfully,
Riki Ellison
Chairman and Founder
Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance
Click Here to Join MDAA [[link removed]]
MDAA is a non-profit, non-partisan tax-exempt 501(c) (4) organization. Our mission
is to make the world safer by advocating for the development and deployment of missile
defense systems to defend the United States and its allies against missile threats.
We are a membership-funded organization that does not advocate on behalf of any
specific system, technology, architecture or entity. Founded in 2002, MDAA is the
only organization in existence whose primary mission is to recruit, organize, and
mobilize proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense. Visit
our website www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org [[link removed]]
for more information.
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Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance
515 King Street, Suite 330
Alexandria, VA 22134
Phone: (703) 299-0060
Email: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
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