To assure the Russians that this initiative would only modify, not imperil, the U.S.-Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty signed in 1972, however, the Administration intends to reaffirm in a new agreement the earlier accord's bans on sea-, air-, mobile ground- and space-based missile defenses of the territory of the United States.
The comprehensive capability to defend against ballistic missile attack inherent in a space-based SDI is utterly incompatible with the concept of strategic vulnerability to such attack enshrined in that 1972 accord.