Editing Strategic Defense Initiative (section)

=== Global Protection Against Limited Strikes ===
While SDIO pursued SDS, the [[Warsaw Pact]] was rapidly disintegrating, culminating in the destruction of the [[Berlin Wall]] in 1989. One of the many reports on SDS considered these events and suggested that a massive defense against a Soviet launch would become unnecessary. However, short and medium range missile technology would likely proliferate as the Soviet Union disintegrated and sold off its hardware. One of the core ideas behind Global Protection Against Limited Strikes (GPALS) was that the Soviet Union would not always be the aggressor and the United States would not always be the target.<ref name=":0" />

Instead of a heavy defense aimed at ICBMs, this report suggested realigning GPALS deployment. Against novel threats the [[Brilliant Pebbles]] would have limited utility, largely because the missiles fired for only a short period and the warheads did not rise high enough for them to be easily tracked by a satellite above them. GPALS thus added a mobile ground-based missile and more low-orbit satellites known as [[Brilliant Eyes]] to feed the Pebbles.

GPALS was approved by [[George H. W. Bush|President George H.W. Bush]] in 1991.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Militarization and Weaponization of Space (1st ed.)|last=Mowthorpe|first=Matthew|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2004|location=New York}}</ref> The system would cut the proposed costs of the SDI system from $53&nbsp;billion to $41&nbsp;billion over a decade.<ref name=":0" /> Instead of attempting to protect against thousands of incoming missiles, GPALS sought to provide protection from up to two hundred nuclear missiles.<ref name=":1">{{Cite magazine|last=Morrison|first=David|year=1992|title=Starburst|magazine=The New Republic|volume=206|pages=21–23}}</ref> GPALS was tasked to protect the United States from attacks coming from all different parts of the world.<ref name=":1" />