SDI Cannon

Security Systems

## Introduction

The **Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)** **Cannon** is a defensive structure built by General Alexis Alexander. It's designed to protect her base from enemy general's powers and super weapon strikes.

## Overview

The SDI Cannon is a giant standing anti-ballistic missile laser turret installed on an X-shaped support base.The turret is tilted about 60 degrees from the ground vertically and can move on 360 degrees horizontally. Its turret consists of a Particle Cannon Blaster that fires a particle beam hot enough to melt most missile armor almost immediately. To detect an incoming missile, the turret relies on the Command Center and the NORAD's missile detection system to spot any incoming missiles and shoot them down when they reach its range. To deal with massive artillery shells however, it has many built-in sensors and micro cameras able to peek closely at any incoming artillery shell. The turret's turning mechanism is hydraulic-based so it can quickly turn around to intercept the shells coming in numbers.

The SDI Cannon's origins can be traced back to the 1980s during the Cold War, the President of the United States back then, Ronald Reagan, is particularly against the Mutual Assured Destruction (M.A.D) doctrine. Thus he called upon the scientists and engineers of the USA to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete. This resulted in the Strategic Defense Initiative being formed in 1984.

A wide array of advanced weapon concepts, including lasers, particle beam weapons (which will evolve into the current Particle Uplink Cannon) and missile systems were studied, along with various sensor, command and control, and high-performance computer systems that would be needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the entire globe.

But in 1987, the American Physical Society concluded that the technologies being considered were decades away from being ready for use, and at least another decade of research was required to know whether such a system was even possible. After the publication of the APS report, SDIs budget was repeatedly cut. By the late 1980s, the effort had been re-focused on the "Brilliant Pebbles" concept, which involves using small orbiting missiles not unlike a conventional air-to-air missile, which was expected to be much less expensive to develop and deploy.

By the 1990s, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse and the perceived threat changed to short-range missiles. Pebbles was modified, but doing so raised its weight and cost; the original design called for around 10,000 missiles and would cost $10 to $20 billion but by 1990, the cost for just 4,600 of these BMDs had ballooned to $55 billion. Fighting in Congress through the early 1990s led to Brilliant Pebbles project's cancellation in 1993.

Decades later, the War on Terror escalated and saw a resurgence in the mass fielding of ballistic missiles. Terrorists of the Global Liberation Army not only managed to secure large amounts of Soviet built R-17 Elbrus tactical ballistic missiles, but also Pakistani Hatf–III Ghaznavi short ranged hypersonic ballistic missiles. These missiles, loaded with anthrax laced warheads, caused much devastation to both US and Chinese forces across Afro-Eurasia.

In retaliation of the terrorist attack on Beijing during the nation's military parade, China deployed their own low-yield nuclear ICBMs against the GLA. General Tsing Shi Tao, the nuclear weapons expert of the PLA, saw the war as an opportunity to further his research, which yielded considerable results. Not only has he managed to develop a new compact MIRV warhead that exceeds the destructive powers of conventional warheads, but also a new platform that can launch multiple nuclear ICBMs simultaneously.

Despite China and America's alliance, the US must prepare a method to counter these weapons on the long run. As the alliance between the two superpowers is fragile at best, and with the heavy losses the US Army sustained in the GLA's invasion of Europe, it's highly probable that China will attempt to assert world dominance after the defeat of the GLA, and their new advanced tactical nuclear weapons will pose a serious threat to US homeland security.

Even worse is General Tao's poor track record of safety and questionable mental health, first with the Mudanjiang Disaster in 2007 where a Hong-6A strategic nuclear bomber accidentally dropped its payload, causing the bombs' conventional explosives to go off and releasing their radioactive material, contaminating a large area of North-Eastern China; then with Tao's unauthorized test of a Hadron Collider which led to the destruction of a newly built USA base. While the PLA demoted Tao over this incident and put him under heavy surveillance, nobody is sure when will his next "accident" or fit of madness occur. Perhaps the old general wants nothing more than to consume the world in brilliant nuclear fire.

This resulted in the rebirth of the SDI project, now overseen by General Alexander. With the progress the US scientists have made with particle beam technologies, a modified version of the Particle Cannon is used, it fires a more concentrated beam of energy and charges up more rapidly so that it can immediately respond to incoming ballistic missiles. An advanced targeting system allows the SDI cannon to intercept not only ballistic missiles, but artillery shells as well. Placement of the weapon was initially disputed, rumors say the General Alexander had plans to install SDI Cannons on the moon, but the proposal was shot down due to the astronomical budget and the restrictions of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. But eventually the US army opted for a sturdy yet flexible platform to install the cannon.

When the SDI Cannon Project was publicly unveiled, American citizens were very amused about the cannon's ability. However, the rest of the nuclear-owning states other than the USA held an emergency meeting in the annual Nuclear Security Summit to discuss this cannon as the USA finally has the capability to nullify every nuclear states' preemptive/second strikes against the nation (meaning nuclear weapons are obsolete to the USA) upon its announcement to the global public. Meanwhile, huge demonstrations started running like wildfire within countries (including the USA, but much later) by fear of an "American Hegemony Theory" and a possible "Star Wars": where the originally peaceful outer space used by many nations to conduct research will soon become a chaotic battleground. One of the opposing nations, China, firmly opposed the widespread deployment of the SDI Cannon under General Tao's leadership, who viewed the cannons as a "Symbol of Imperialism". But the SDI Cannon still remains after the American President promised that he will not order the USA armed forces to install them on overseas, even if it were in their own bases. And if they have to, that will be a temporary one.

The SDI Cannon is available as soon as the player reaches Rank 5. Its main purpose is to protect General Alexander's base from weapon strikes by shooting down enemy missiles and artillery shells. Thus rendering the following weapons/general's powers useless or ineffective against the base it's guarding:

* Artillery Barrage
* Elbrus Storm
* Elbrus Launcher
* Hatf-III Missile
* Nuclear Missile
* Nuclear Storm
* Dong Feng
* Death Hand

However, the SDI Cannon cannot intercept aircrafts send by offensive general's powers. However, if the aircraft's payload is dropped from sufficient height and within the SDI Cannon's effective range, then it could be intercepted. It's also helpless against non-ballistic super weapons, such as the Particle Uplink Cannon and General Bao's Atmospheric Lens.

The SDI Cannon also has a fatal flaw: it is unable to shoot down single shells as the cannon cannot turn itself to intercept low-moving artillery shells and its AI is purposely adjusted to only deal with artillery shells flying at least 50 m above it to avoid overheating. Hence, artillery units such as Danas, Nuke Cannons, artillery-oriented Infantry Troop Crawlers, Libras, Sniper Cannons, artillery Cyber Angels or Cyber Spiders, Earth Shakers, Zhu Rong's magma cannon and even Karkadann's artillery barrage can safely destroy it with no harm.

## General's Challenge

In General Alexander's challenge, her base is guarded by 2 SDI Cannons, one is located just west of her airfield, the other is located north of her Command Center, right next to the Strategy Center. The cannons essentially covered the airspace of her entire base, essentially rendering ballistic super weapons useless against her. If destroyed, the cannons will not be rebuilt, thus leaving her base open for weapon strikes.

If you are playing as a Chinese General who relies heavily on artillery barrages and nuclear missiles for offence, then it's highly recommended to capture the poorly guarded Particle Cannon located on the south east corner of the map. Unlike in the original challenge, trying to capture the base will not prompt General Alexander to sell it. The player can then use the Particle Cannon to destroy the SDI cannons and thus leave an opening for artillery barrages and nuclear missiles.

## Assessment

Pros:

* Can stop most Superweapons and projectile based GP's.
* Has a very fast turn and pitch rate, which enables it to stop multiple GP's
* Even though it cannot shoot down GP planes, it can nullify their payloads very quickly
* It is quite a durable structure, it is likely to survive a strike if something still sneaks through
* Can be upgraded with Composite Armor to further improve its durability
* Has a massive range, further than any defensive structure in Contra.

Cons:

* Expensive ($3000).
* Takes a lot of power (15 units), and is useless when the player has low power.
* Takes long to build (1 minute).
* Available only at rank 5, making it a very late game structure.
* Somehow it can't shoot down single artillery shells since it ignores most normal artillery fire.

## Trivia

* In earlier versions of Contra the SDI Cannon wasn't the only thing capable of intercepting superweapons. The Saturn could also target them, although it was not strong enough to stop them entirely.
* In the 009 Final version the SDI cannon received a huge cosmetic change. Its model has been improved and became more detailed. The old version can be seen in older versions. Compare and be amazed!
* When the SDI cannon shoots down a missile or bomb, there is no explosion or even a leftover. Apparently the concentrated particle beam is able to completely disintegrate the target without risk.
* Leonidas' laser cannon uses the same barrel model as the old SDI Cannon.
* Although the SDI Cannon is possible to build in real life, its creation might cause widespread damage to USA's foreign relations as it could break through the balance of power. Besides, there could be more diplomatic incidents with other nations trying to acquire such defense structures either via rogue states or terrorist organizations, increasing difficulty for future war suppression.