Long skeptical of space-based defenses, it is already moving to give the work a financial boost.
President Bush has decided to decide in 1993 whether to proceed with early deployment of space-based defenses.
That program, too, was fundamentally redesigned in January to incorporate a new space-based defense.
The Soviets resisted this because they were less advanced in space-based defenses.
He has not been a leading spokesman, either way, on such contested issues as money for a space-based defense against missiles.
Just read the treaty in a way that would allow development of space-based defenses.
Neither interpretation would allow actual deployment of space-based defenses, however.
In sum, there seemed no shortage of techniques with which to counter a space-based defense.
On top of that will come expenses for the expanding the research program to develop a space-based defense against nuclear missiles.
Fear of this competition is clearly a major reason for Moscow's interest in limiting research on space-based defenses.
