Missile Defense Agency Missile Defense Tests Successful

Credit Due to the Missile Defense Agency
During the heat of a presidential election campaign, candidates will say many things that do not-and should not-necessarily translate into real policy when it comes time to govern. One can only hope that's the case with President Obama's assertions last year that he would likely cut funding to "unproven" missile defense systems and, presumably, to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

Such statements might sound thoughtful and prudent on the campaign trail, but they are actually misleading and inaccurate. They imply that missile defense interceptor systems are merely experimental and unproven. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.

On Dec. 5, 2008, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency performed a spectacularly successful intercept test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptor (GMD). This was much more than the familiar guided-missile scenario in which a relatively close target is destroyed by an exploding warhead. This was technically a kinetic energy intercept-a direct hit destroying the incoming missile by the force of collision.

And that wasn't the first time. In numerous tests of these kinetic-energy kill vehicles, the Missile Defense Agency has recorded a 75 percent success rate. This is essentially the same system that the Bush administration proposed for deployment in Poland. Instead of falling back on misleading and inaccurate rhetoric, President Obama should acknowledge these successes and follow through with the deployment.

President Obama is not the only one to raise unfounded objections to these missile systems. Read the article "Successful Missile Defense Test Shows Technology Not 'Unproven'"  HERE to learn some of the answers to these critics.