Technology Applications Program, SDI, Strategic Defense Initiative

For the past five years of the SDI program, over 16 billion has been invested in the research and development of new technology that can make the world a safer place to live. While this investment has been made for the common defense and has made great strides forward, it has also developed a wave of new technology with applications to almost every imaginable scientific discipline ranging from medicine to the preservation of the global environment. This document reports on the progress of the new state of the art technologies that are the products of the SDI investment and their contributions to the national technology base, the economy, and the challenge of international competitiveness. The SDI program established its Technology Applications Program in conjunction with Congressional and Presidential initiatives that recognize the necessity of making federal technology available to American industry within the constraints of national security considerations. This report details the program that has been structured to carry out these tasks, and its ongoing activities. The SDI technological legacy is detailed in terms of the spinoffs and new businesses created by applying SDI technologies to medical, computer, energy, electronics, aerospace, automotive, and other industrial applications.