It’s not Star Wars, it’s strategic defense

Factual evidence seems to escape the view of Edward Loughlin, who wrote Wednesday’s “Leave Star Wars to Hollywood” letter.

I worked for Hughes Aircraft when, in 1986, the first test of the Strategic Defense Initiative was performed. An Air Force F-15 armed with a modified Hughes AMRAAM missile shot down a dummy ICBM in its first trial.

Since then, that technology has been designed into operational Navy Standard-3 missiles. Nine tests from operational naval vessels were conducted in the past year. Of these, eight training ICBMs were destroyed by “Hit to Kill” weapons.

The Strategic Defense Initiative is alive and in use by our warriors.