The Hill:

Forty years ago, President Ronald Reagan unveiled the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). As long as nuclear weapons exist, the United States would maintain credible deterrence against its nuclear rivals, and President Reagan made sure of that. He believed it was unwise and wrong to leave Americans vulnerable to nuclear attack if deterrence failed. He understood that active defenses were a necessary component to the suite of options for the United States to protect Americans. The aim to bolster U.S. homeland defense is as important today as it was in 1983.

Today, we face markedly different threats than we did during the Cold War. Rather than having one peer nuclear adversary, the United States now faces two. China is undergoing a generational strategic breakout of its nuclear weapons and military leaders are uncertain about the strength of Chinese nuclear forces a decade from now. At the same time, Russia is nearing completion of a massive nuclear weapons overhaul and Moscow continues nuclear saber rattling to deter the United States from aiding Ukraine as it defends itself from the Russian invasion.

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