Brilliant Pebbles-like system will be absurdly easy to build now (it was borderline technically feasible 40 years ago already) and unlike in the 1980s, there is a ready way to put it into orbit - in much bigger quantities than Reagan could ever dream of, and they themselves can be a lot lighter. And the world has way fewer ballistic missiles today.
From guidance perspective there is nothing easier than a boost phase intercept because on a boost phase, a missile is easy to see, and no countermeasures can probably confuse it. From a ballistic perspective it is the hardest intercept mode, but not if we start in the orbit.
Total mass of a working system that will protect against an attack from any country but Russia, and will protect against second strike from Russia - that is, will enable first strike against it but not protect against it's first strike - will be trivial and a lot lower than current orbiting mass of Starlink system. It won't even require Starship to launch it.
With Starship online, ballistic missile arsenal of all countries will become entirely worthless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
Brilliant Pebbles-like system will be absurdly easy to build now (it was borderline technically feasible 40 years ago already) and unlike in the 1980s, there is a ready way to put it into orbit - in much bigger quantities than Reagan could ever dream of, and they themselves can be a lot lighter. And the world has way fewer ballistic missiles today.
From guidance perspective there is nothing easier than a boost phase intercept because on a boost phase, a missile is easy to see, and no countermeasures can probably confuse it. From a ballistic perspective it is the hardest intercept mode, but not if we start in the orbit.
Total mass of a working system that will protect against an attack from any country but Russia, and will protect against second strike from Russia - that is, will enable first strike against it but not protect against it's first strike - will be trivial and a lot lower than current orbiting mass of Starlink system. It won't even require Starship to launch it.
With Starship online, ballistic missile arsenal of all countries will become entirely worthless.