American interest in anti-ballistic missile systems was rekindled in March 1983, when the proposals for SDI were made public by President Reagan.

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the signing of the START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) I and II treaties, and the election in 1992 of Bill Clinton as President, SDI, like many other weapons programmes, was given a lower budgetary priority. In 1991, President George Bush had announced that the emphasis would shift from defence against attack by strategic (long-range) ballistic missiles to defence against tactical (medium-range and short-range) missiles. SDI was abandoned in favour of Theater Missile Defense (TMD), a less costly programme administered by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), that would make use of ground-based anti-missile systems, including the Patriot missile system.