Ironically, Reagan probably thought it wouldn’t work; the point of SDI was not to intercept missiles but to goad the Soviets into spending more money that they didn’t have. The Israelis took the ball and ran with it.
I was involved at the time and it was very much known to work but not always.
The technology was in development before RR took office. The system was tested many many times with limited but improving success. Many tests were conducted in the Mojave Desert. RR wanted the system and was undoubtedly informed of its improving hit rate. But it wasn’t 100%. So he did wait on giving the order to deploy. But he wanted it bad because it represented a great political win. Rather than SALT talks of freezing nuclear weapons, he could talk of scrapping them.
RR’s hesitation was also brought about by the uncertainty of its cost and return on investment especially in the midst of criticisms of the cost of his military buildup.
And yes you are correct in the final decision he approved its deployment to goad the Soviets into further crippling themselves financially.
“Ironically, Reagan probably thought it wouldn’t work; the point of SDI was not to intercept missiles but to goad the Soviets into spending more money that they didn’t have. The Israelis took the ball and ran with it.”
Spend more money. If we learned one thing from Reagan it was to defeat communism you have to bankrupt it. So how come we are not suing every leftwing group for billions?