Defense Dept. May Create Think Tank for ‘Star Wars’
The Defense Department may establish a federally funded think tank to promote President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, a Pentagon spokesman said Saturday.
Spokesman Robert B. Sims said Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger has been briefed on the plan and is “favorably disposed to it but he has not seen any paper work on it yet.”
The Strategic Defense Initiative, known as “Star Wars,” is a $3-billion-a-year effort to build a space-based shield against incoming missiles.
Sims said he had no cost estimate for the think tank. The Washington Post quoted an unidentified source as placing it around $30 million a year.
Sims said that details of the in-house SDI think tank remain to be worked out. But he said that the Defense Department envisions a 100-150-person, federally funded research organization, “something like the Rand Corp.”
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