Editing Strategy of Technology (section)

==Opposing views and controversies==
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It is argued that the strategy was not a great success in the Cold War; that the [[Soviet Union]] did little to try to keep up with the SDI system, and that the War in Afghanistan caused a far greater drain on Soviet resources.  However, the Soviets spent a colossal amount of money on their [[Shuttle Buran|''Buran'']] space shuttle in an attempt to compete with a perceived military threat from the American [[Space Shuttle program]], which was to be used in the SDI.

There is a further consideration. It is not seriously in doubt that despite the excellent education and training of Soviet technologists and scientists, it was the nations of Europe and North America, in particular the United States, which made most of the running in technical development.

The Soviet Union did have some extraordinary technical breakthroughs of their own. For example: the 15% efficiency advantage of Soviet rocket engines which used [[NK-33#Combustion-chamber design|exhaust gases to power the fuel pumps]], or the [[VA-111 Shkval]] supersonic cavitation torpedo. It was also able to use both its superlative espionage arm and the inherent ability of central planning to concentrate resources to great effect.

But the United States found a way to use its opponent's strengths for its own purposes. In the late 1990s, it emerged that many stolen technological secrets were funnelled by an arm of American [[intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]] to the Soviet Union. The documents were real. They were of versions of the product which contained a critical but not obvious flaw.

Such was the complexity and depth of the stolen secrets that to check them, would have required an effort almost as great as developing a similar product from scratch. Such an effort was possible in nations of the West because the cost could be defrayed by commercial sales. In Soviet states this was not an option. This sort of technological jiu-jitsu may set the pattern of future engagements.