President reagan's proposal for a strategic defense initiative (sdi), which critics derided by labeling it "star wars," called for

It was labeled Starwars because it uses a different kind of technology. SDI is also based on space which the main purpose was to target the Soviet Union during the cold war. It is a strategic defense system of the US run by supercomputers.

The "Star Wars" project proposed by President Reagan's for strategic defense initiative was accounted for the space-based satellite system. It was created to hunt down Soviet Ballistic missiles before they can backfire the US. The nickname was created because of its fictionality and also the speech came just weeks after his evil empire speech.