The plan originated from a famous speech by US President Ronald Reagan at the end of the Cold War (March 23, 1983). "The core content is: attacking the enemy's intercontinental strategic missiles and outer space spacecraft in outer space by various means to prevent hostile countries from launching nuclear strikes against the United States and its allies. Its technical means include the deployment of high-energy weapons in outer space and on the ground. Directional weapons (such as microwaves, lasers, high-energy particle beams, electromagnetic kinetic energy weapons, etc.) or conventional strike weapons carry out multi-level interceptions at various stages of enemy strategic missile attacks. Many allies of the United States, including the United Kingdom, Italy, and West Germany. , Israel, Japan, etc. also participated in this plan to varying degrees at the request of the United States.

With the exposure of CIA Cold War secrets, the "Star Wars" plan has been confirmed to be a complete failure. The public opinion was in an uproar for a time. Most people began to believe that the "Star Wars" plan was just a propaganda method used by the US government to bring down the Soviet Union. However, the Pentagon claimed that it was not implemented because of technical flaws. Devices used for research and experiments in the "Star Wars" program still play a role. For example, at the White Sands Experimental Site in the United States, the lasers used to study the "beam spacecraft" (using lasers instead of chemical fuels) are still derived from those used in the Star Wars program.