Star Wars Factsheet #1: Spent Over $100 Billion
OVER $100 BILLION SPENT
The U.S. has already spent over $100 billion on missile defenses with little to show; why throw good money after bad?
To date, the U.S. has spent over $100 billion for a variety of national and theater missile systems. Even with this expenditure, the U.S. was able to destroy only a small proportion of crude Iraqi scud missiles in the Persian Gulf War. After more than 40 years, the U.S. should have learned that expensive defensive missile deployment (as opposed to research) is a dubious proposition.
Past Costs of U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Programs
$ 1.5 billion - estimated pre-1962 spending
$ 3.2 billion - Nike-Zeus (1962 - 1965)
$ 9.2 billion - Nike-X (1962 - 1969)
$ 21.3 billion - Safeguard (1968 - 1978)
$ 13.8 billion - Other missile defense programs (1962 -1996)
$ 59.0 billion -Strategic Defense Initiative/National Missile
Defense/Theater Missile Defense (1983 - 1998)
Total — $108 billion
(Figures in billions of fiscal 1996 dollars).
Source: Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons since 1940 (Brookings Institution Press, 1998). Estimate does not include any costs associated with R&D, testing, or production of nuclear warheads (for example, those for the Sprint and Spartan missiles for Safeguard).