The book you hold in your hands is devoted to the history of "star wars," but not invented, raging in a distant galaxy, but real, starting here on Earth, in the silence of design bureaus and computer centers. You will read about the Luftwaffe, Red Army and US Air Force rocket planes, about space bombers and orbital interceptors, about the missile defense program and how to overcome it. And at present, the point in the history of military cosmonautics has not yet been put. We are experiencing another episode of Star Wars, and it is not yet clear who will emerge victorious from the eternal battle between good and evil.