Missile-guidance computer programs so complex that they can be written and tested only by other computer programs. A laser weapon that can release death rays in the nanoseconds before it is obliterated by its own power source, an atom bomb. A jet fighter that can understand the pilot's spoken commands.
Pentagon visionaries, rarely idle, are especially busy these days dreaming up such futuristic tools of war. Research and development has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Reagan defense buildup: the Administration has nearly doubled military R. and D. spending since 1981, and seeks another 22% hike, to $39.4 billion, for 1986. That is more than 10% of overall defense spending, twice the federal budget for civilian research, and enough to fund Medicaid for two years.
The biggest-ticket R. and D. item is Reagan's Space Defense Initiative, better known as Star Wars. The Administration wants to increase research funding for the SDI from $1.4 billion this year to $3.7 billion in 1986 and spend a whopping $30 billion during the next six years. Because a space-based defense system is still highly speculative, the research encompasses a dizzying array of technologies, like electromagnetic "rail guns" to fire projectiles at extremely high speeds across hundreds of miles of space and particle accelerators to hit a missile with a stream of atoms traveling near the speed of light.
A space-based defense system must itself be defended from pre-emptive attack: to enhance "survivability," the military is at work on a new generation of satellites, armored against laser rays, that can stay parked 22,000 miles over one spot on earth yet dodge enemy missiles and "space mines." Another far- out idea: a "pop-up" defense system that would be fired into space by submarines only after enemy missiles had been launched.
While the Pentagon tries to build the U.S. a perfect shield, it is hard at work trying to overcome Soviet defenses. In the late '60s the U.S. developed the MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) to saturate Soviet antimissile systems. Now that the Soviets are again beefing up their own defenses, the Pentagon is asking $174 million to develop a MARV (maneuverable reentry vehicle) that could dart and weave to avoid anti- missile missiles. The disclosure of the MARV research is awkward for the Reagan Administration because it undercuts the President's argument that it is possible to build an airtight defense system. Arms-race foes naturally fear another round of nuclear one-upmanship as MIRVing is made more lethal by MARVing.
The most intriguing items in the Pentagon's R. and D. budget may as yet be unknown. Up to a quarter of R. and D. funds--some $10 billion, a 50% increase over last year--are for classified or "black" programs deemed too sensitive by the Pentagon to be publicly divulged. The secrecy has set off the inevitable guessing game over such code names as Seek Axle, Have Flag, Cactus Plant and Theme Castle. Some experts believe that Aurora is the budget heading for "stealth" technology, which one day could make a plane or cruise missile invisible to enemy radar. Aurora's price tag: $80 million in 1986 and a hefty $2.3 billion in 1987.