Beam Weapons: Roots of Reagan's Star Wars
By Jeff Hecht
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Beam Weapons describes the roots of Ronald Reagan's 'Star Wars' quest for a strategic defense system to intercept and destroy nuclear ballistic missiles before they could reach their targets. The goal was to develop radically new beam weapons that destroyed nuclear missiles with directed energy — laser beams or charged particles.
The daring program was born at a time of intense technological optimism, when NASA talked of weekly space shuttle flights. Pentagon planners envisioned a fleet of orbiting laser battle stations that could blast thousands of nuclear missiles out of the sky. Critics dubbed the plan an impossible 'Star Wars' fantasy. The controversy quickly grew heated.
In Beam Weapons, Jeff Hecht focuses on the core technical issues. He tells how lasers and particle beams work, explains what is needed for effective missile defense, and carefully analyzes the feasibility of proposed systems. More than 30 years later, the Cold War is history, but the technology Reagan sought remains beyond the state of the art.
Originally published as Beam Weapons: The Next Arms Race in 1984, the book has a new subtitle to reflect its historical import. A new epilogue recalls key events of the intervening decades, and describes the Pentagon's new generation of more modest laser weapons.
Science and technology writer Jeff Hecht is the author of Understanding Lasers, Beam: The Race To Make The Laser, Laser Pioneers, and Understanding Fiber Optics.
Jeff Hecht
Jeff Hecht has been writing about lasers and optical technology for since the 1970s. He is contributing editor to Laser Focus World, and a correspondent for New Scientist magazine. His other books include Understanding Lasers, Beam: The Race to Make the Laser, City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics, Understanding Fiber Optics, Optics: Light for a New Age, The Laser Guidebook, and Laser: Supertool of the 1980s. He graduated from Caltech in electrical engineering.
Read more from Jeff Hecht
Beam Weapons: Roots of Reagan's Star Wars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInstructor's Guide to Accompany Understanding Fiber Optics Fifth Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConspiracy! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adventures in Self-Republishing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Beam Weapons
Related ebooks
The Silicon War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNuclear Fission Reactors, Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWeapons of Choice: The Development of Precision Guided Munitions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder an Ionized Sky: From Chemtrails to Space Fence Lockdown Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wounded Eagle: Washington's Air Defense Shield Is Down Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTechnology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fusion, Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNuclear Power Explained Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDrone Warfare: The Development of Unmanned Aerial Conflict Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCurbing the spread of nuclear weapons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAtomic Anxiety: Deterrence, Taboo and the Non-Use of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Rule the Skies: General Thomas S. Power and the Rise of Strategic Air Command in the Cold War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bomb: A New History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Future of Nuclear Power, Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnmanned: Drone Warfare and Global Security Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History of Nuclear Power, Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlueprint for a Battlestar: Serious Scientific Explanations Behind Sci-Fi's Greatest Inventions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Box: KAL 007 and the Superpowers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMost Secret Weapons of Nations Remote Viewed: Second Edition: Kiwi Joe's Remote Viewed Series, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRadiation, Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdios El Jefe! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath Dust: The Rise, Decline, and Future of Radiological Weapons Programs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrofus I: Future Trends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRadiological and Nuclear Terrorism: Their Science, Effects, Prevention, and Recovery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSafe Enough?: A History of Nuclear Power and Accident Risk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Untaken Road: Strategy, Technology, and the Hidden History of America's Mobile ICBMs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBomb Scare: The History & Future of Nuclear Weapons Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Memoir of the Missile Age: One Man's Journey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsManhattan Project: The Story of the Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpace Force!: A Quirky and Opinionated Look at America’s Newest Military Service Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
International Relations For You
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (Updated Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Beirut to Jerusalem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside the CIA Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Palestine Peace Not Apartheid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex and World Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When China Attacks: A Warning to America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Walls: How Barriers Between Nations Are Changing Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Garden of Beasts: by Erik Larson | Summary & Analysis: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Next Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Beam Weapons
0 ratings0 reviews