Cowley College - Tiger Daze Yearbook (Arkansas City, KS)

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STARTLING FACTS (The following explanation of the technolo gical aspects of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), unofficially called Star Wars, is based on George Church ' s article Exploring the High- Tech Frontier in the TIME magazine of March 11, 1985.) The basic idea of the SDI concept is to come up with a strategy which, in the end, leads away from offensive nuclear weapons. SDI suggests a defensive shield in space that provides a layered defense. Under the plan, enemy warheads should be attacked during their flight and at each stage, a greater number should be destroyed. In the end, only 10 percent or less would explode on targets which could leave the US retaliatory capacity in tact. To understand the functioning of the SDI concept, it is necessary to know that a Soviet warhead goes through four stages: 1. Boost Phase-the missile is pushed into space 2. Post-Boost Phase- 10 Multiple In- dependently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRV) are fired 3. Mid-Course Phase-the warhead speeds through space 4. Re-Entry Phase-the vehicles re- enter the atmosphere andhead toward their targets SDI is most effective during the Boost Phase because the warheads are then easiest to be made out and the hits have the strongest effects. The effectiveness of the SDI therefore, depends on the ef- fectiveness of the warhead killers. Scientists are still researching and discussing what kind of warhead killer would be possible. Three kinds of potential missile and warhead killers are in the center of discussion. LASER beams travel at the speed of light and can be focused over great distances into space to attack the Soviet missiles. Three kinds of lasers are possible. CHEMICAL LASERS are the most powerful, but they would still have to be 10 million times as powerful as the ones being tested now to be ef- fective. They require seven seconds of constant aiming at the target which is quite impossible as the targets are speeding through space. As ground- based lasers cannot send beams around the earth, they would require a generating apparatus in space, with satellites weighing 100 tons each. EXCIMER LASERS need only one second for focusing, but their generating apparatus is so heavy that it could not be lifted into space. Laser stations would have to be installed on mountain tops, from where, in case of an attack, beams would be sent to relay mirrors in orbit and from there to battle mirrors which direct the beams at the target. These mirrors would have to be permanently in- stalled, they would have to be of a gigantic size and of almost unimaginable perfection. X-RAY LASERS need less precision to aim and are very powerful, but the way they are produced creates a problem. A nuclear explosion is initiated and part of the energy released is transformed into x-rays. To use x-rays would either mean to install hundreds of nuclear bombs in orbit, always ready to explode, or to station similar nuclear devices on submarines which launch them into space where they detonate. The submarines would have to be stationed along the Soviet coastline to be effective and would, in case of a Soviet attack, be the first target of aggression. Also, x-ray lasers are the slowest lasers and would reach the warheads during their last stages and so be nearly ineffective. Besides the different kinds of lasers, PARTICLE BEAMS are in the discussion. They work by frying the innards of missiles and consist of streams of atoms. They are very slow and would need accelerators weighing 500 tons each. Other disad- vantages are that they can hardly penetrate the atmosphere and will be distracted from their course by the earth ' s magnetism. KINETIC ENERGY WEAPONS are simply rockets and pellets fired at the warheads. In this field, technology is better developed. They can function ground or air based and are effective on every stage of the enemy warhead ' s flight. They could be in- stalled by 1990. The problem is that kinetic energy weapons are not able to differ between decoys and warheads and that consequently too many warheads might survive the at- tack. Because of the difficulties involved and because it doesn ' t seem as if scientists will be able to come up with a feasible project for SDI in the next few years, many experts doubt that SDI is feasible. Countermeasures are easy to take. The Soviet Union could simply enlarge the number of warheads and decoys. It is also possible to reduce the vulnerability of missiles by shortening the boost phase and by making them rotate or by employing devices to dif- fuse the beams. The most obvious and simple coun- termeasure would be to attack the system itself. It is relatively easy to attack fixed satellites and even easier to destroy the mirrors, which have to be 100 percent perfect to work.

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Star Wars • Bettina Heinz FROM SHOOTING STARS TO SHO OTING WARS Cowley student re ' lects on the impact of the new military SDI defense system Star Wars is the new United States proposed defense strategy aimed at replacing the current strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The power forces of the world have existed under the MAD strategy for some time and as a citizen of America ' s closest ally in continental Europe, West Germany, I am con- cerned that the US is considering adopting Star Wars. Under the MAD strategy, a balance between East and West has been maintained by United States Pershing II and Cruise Missiles being installed in allied European countries including West Germany. Currently, they work as a counterweight to the Soviet SS 20 missiles. My family and I live in the Rhineland Palatinate, and we are literally sitting on top of these American weapons. No one knows better than we do, how un- comfortable it can be living under a constant threat of nuclear war, but the MAD strategy is one which has been proven to work. The strategic concept for Star Wars, on the other hand, may be one which is unrealistic. President Ronald Reagan describes Star Wars this way: A nuclear free world is an ultimate objective to which we (the United States), the Soviet Union, and all other nations can agree. Reagan ' s description sounds good,

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STAR WARS continued from page 15 Reagan ' s description sounds good, but is it really a realistic objective? Is it realistic enough to justify a radical change in American defense policies? The statement describing Star Wars might have been published by a representative of a peace movement rather than the Reagan ad- ministration. But it is a Reagan statement and currently he faces criticism in his own ranks as only a few are convinced that Star Wars could work. It appears the problems with a Star Wars system are immense. The earliest a system could be installed would be 1990 and then to install the complete system would take a minimum of 20 years. Political con- ditions, and scientific discoveries may have changed fundamentally by this date and after a 20-year installation period, what guarantee is there that the system wouldn ' t have to be up- dated before being made operational. Finally, if the system were in- stalled and it worked at top capacity, 10 percent of the Soviet missiles would reach their target and that would still mean catastrophe. The situation is made even more catastrophic by the nuclear rain which would be released when the bulk of the Soviet warheads are destroyed in space. That rain would be fatal to cities in the United States. Perhaps equally frightening as the catastrophe Star Wars could bring on the United States, is the computer requirements to control the program. George Church points out in his March 1 1 , 1985 TIME magazine article that humans would not be able to write or check the required programs. This would all be in the hands of computers, some placed in space stations and out of human con- trol. Humans would have to program key decisions and responses years before the actual attack and com- puters would initiate the defensive attack before undisputed knowledge of a Soviet attack could be possible. Should we give the movie version of Wargames a chance to come true? So far, Star Wars renders the climate more hostile than it con- tributes to peace. The question of Star Wars comes at a critical time. The alliance between the United States and the European NATO members has been suffering in the last years and now Star Wars nourishes European fe ars again. I would very much like to see the nuclear bombs removed from my home country, but those bombs are exactly what has kept peace in the last decades. It seems shortsighted to give up all the security of a practiced strategy to plunge head-over-heels into an expensive, perhaps im- possible, and potentially deadly ad- venture. Star Wars is, at this point, an im- mature project and cannnot possibly be supported. It gives reason to worry because it is another symptom of a disease which world politicians have been suffering from for a long time- tine technological progress sets the political stage and strategies are made up to fit technological ad- vancements. Research should not be restricted but there must also be rationality and common sense to han- dle its results. The Arkansas City Chamber of Commerce salutes COWLEY COUNTY COMMMUNITY COLLEGE and its positive impact on the area isle: MID KANSAS FEDERAL 442-6700 MID K ' iNSAS FEDERAL SAVINGS a LOAN ASSOCIATION 125 N SUMMIT ST ARKANSAS CITY. KANSAS 67005-0754