The Strategic Defense Inititive Organization or, as it is widely known, SDIO, conducted two successful "technology validation experiments" in 1986. The Flexible Lightweight Agile-Guided Experiment (FLAGE), demonstrated the feasibility of tracking and destroying missiles at low altitudes as they approach U.S. military or civilian targets. In one FLAGE test, a ground-based interceptor destroyed a simulated nuclear warhead traveling at over 3,000 miles per hour. Another test, called Delta 180, demonstrated the ability of KEW technology to track and destroy a missile warhead in space with a ground-launched guided missile. In the test, a target missile was launched into space and then tracked, intercepted, and destroyed by a second ground-launched missile. Space,-Based Kinetic-Kill. Vebicles (SBKKVs) deployed on space-based platforms would be used to target and destroy enemy Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) immediately after an ICBM is launched and as it leaves the atmo
A close reading of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and of its negotiating and ratification record would justify a presidential decision in favor of the so-called broad interpretation of the ABM Treaty. This would be legally correct and would allow a more rapid and cost-effective investigation of SDI technologies.