Brilliant Pebbles

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Brilliant Pebbles was a United States space-based ballistic missile defense (BMD) system proposed by Lowell Wood and Edward Teller of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1987, near the end of the Cold War. The system would consist of thousands of small satellites, each with missiles similar to conventional heat seeking missiles, placed in low Earth orbit constellations so that hundreds would be above the Soviet Union at all times. If the Soviets launched their intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet, the pebbles would detect their rocket motors using infrared seekers and collide with them. Because the pebble strikes the ICBM before the latter could release its warheads, each pebble could destroy several warheads with one shot. Brilliant Pebbles is named as a play on "Smart Rocks", a concept promoted by Daniel O. Graham under the United States Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Smart Rocks envisioned at least 423 large orbital battle stations equipped with powerful...

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