A Missile Defense for All

Abstract : Now, more than sixteen years after the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative, the United States finds itself at a critical crossroads in determining how best to defend the homeland and deployed military forces against ballistic missile attack. The Department of Defense, and more specifically the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), appears prepared to make the difficult developmental and fielding decisions concerning the Missile Defense systems of the future. These systems will provide both the needed protection to deployed U.S. military forces and a limited defense to the United States well into and beyond the next decade. BMDO must not squander away its opportunity and responsibility to choose those Theater and Air Missile Defense and National Missile Defense systems that will produce the best defense while eliminating costly missile defense programs that show little hope of success. These are important times for Missile Defense.