Brilliant Pebbles

Brilliant Pebbles was a non-nuclear system of satellite-based, watermelon-sized mini-missiles designed to use a high-velocity kinetic warhead. It was designed to operate in conjunction with the Brilliant Eyes sensor system and would have detected and destroyed missiles without any external guidance. The project was conceived in November 1986.

John H. Nuckolls, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1988 to 1994, described the system as “The crowning achievement of the Strategic Defense Initiative”. The technologies developed for SDI were used in numerous later projects. For example, the sensors and cameras that were developed for Brilliant Pebbles became components of the Clementine mission and SDI technologies may also have a role in future missile defense efforts.

Though regarded as one of the most capable SDI systems, the Brilliant Pebbles program was canceled in 1994 by the BMDO. However, it is being reevaluated for possible future use by the MDA.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative

Related Links:

• Brilliant Pebbles - Missilethreat.com
• Brilliant Pebbles - Global Security
• Brilliant Pebbles Returns - Defensetech.org

• SDI Brilliant Pebbles killer vehicle test #1
• SDI Brilliant Pebbles killer vehicle test #2

• Report of Defense Science Board on SDIO Brilliant
• Brilliant Pebbles 1990 Full Document via FOIA

• Research Highlights -  “The crowning achievement of the Strategic Defense Initiative was Brilliant Pebbles,” says John Nuckolls, who followed Batzel as Laboratory director. ... 
• S&TR January/February 2001 4 Lawrence Livermore National ... designs as well as research on ballistic missile defense, which included particle beams, free- electron lasers, x-ray lasers, and Brilliant Pebbles, part of ... 
• From Fission to Fusion and Beyond... S&TR September 2007 Teller Centennial Highlight ond ray laser and a constellation of tiny nonnuclear satellites dubbed Brilliant Pebbles. ... 
• New micro- and nanolithographic techniques are expanding Livermore... Defense Initiative, Livermore researchers delivered many new materials and technologies - such as lighter-than-air aerogels—for Brilliant Pebbles and other ...
• Page 4... Lab in 1993 after a career in operations and business administration at TRW.While at TRW,she worked as business manager for the Brilliant Pebbles program, a ...
• Coral clues to climate change... Brilliant Pebbles These small, lightweight, and low-cost space-based interceptors were designed to knock out strategic mis- siles by colliding with them at ... 
• Director Emeritus Dr. Edward Teller... held a number of positions in the areas of precision engi- neering and materials fabrication, and was program leader for the Brilliant Pebbles Test Program. ...
• Legacy of the X-Ray Laser Program... of the x-ray laser effort and numerous other research activities (such as the efforts in free- electron and chemical lasers and Brilliant Pebbles, a nonnuclear ...
• ASTRID Rocket Flight Test... Many of the propulsion components we tested in the rocket evolved over a 5-year development effort that had its origins in the Brilliant Pebbles program, which ...

Carl Haussmann helped to revolutionize nuclear warhead design... with senior military officers and members of Congress to provide information needed to help build the consensus for the Brilliant Pebbles program of nonnuclear ...

BMD In An Ideal World -- 13 July 2005 Presentation Version
Jul 13, 2005 ... Brilliant Pebbles-demonstrated; Clementine performance-validated. –. Minimal interceptor masses can be exceptionally small ... Brilliant pebble...
http://www.marshall.org/pdf/materials/308.pdf