Editing First strike (nuclear strategy) (section)

==First-strike enabling weapons systems==

Any [[missile defense]] system capable of wide-area (e.g., continental) coverage, and especially those enabling destruction of missiles in the boost phase, is a first-strike-enabling weapon because it allows for a nuclear strike to be launched with reduced fear of [[mutual assured destruction]]. Such a system has never been deployed, although a limited continental missile defense capability has been deployed by the U.S., but it is capable of defending against only a handful of missiles.

This does not apply, in general, to terminal missile defense systems, such as the former U.S. [[Safeguard Program]] or the Russian [[A-35 anti-ballistic missile system|A-35]]/[[A-135 anti-ballistic missile system|A-135]] systems. Limited-area terminal missile defense systems, defending such targets as ICBM fields, or C<sup>4</sup>ISTAR facilities may, in fact, be stabilizing, because they ensure survivable retaliatory capacity, and/or survivable de-escalation capacity.

This also might not apply to a "non-discriminatory" space-based missile defense system, even if it is&mdash;actually, precisely because it is&mdash;of global reach. Such a system would be designed to destroy all weapons launched by any nation in a ballistic trajectory, negating any nation's capability to launch any strike with ballistic missiles, assuming the system was sufficiently robust to repel attacks from all potential threats, and built to open standards openly agreed upon and adhered to. No such system has yet been seriously proposed.