President Clinton is scheduled to decide this fall whether to give the system a green light. Heated debate has surrounded the impending decision. The answer is no. The NMD's objective is to protect the United States from attacks by countries, such as North Korea, that could in the future acquire long-range missiles armed with nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons. The key problem is that the defense has to work against an enemy that is aware of the system and deliberately trying to foil it.
Countermeasures require technology that is much simpler than the technology needed for the defense.
This inherent asymmetry means an attacker would have an advantage, despite the overwhelming technological edge the United States has over any potential attacker such as North Korea. These are the conclusions of a year-long study organized by UCS and the MIT Security Studies Program. In addition to the two of us, the study participants included nine other physicists and engineers, half of whom have served as senior consultants to the Defense Department. The study report discusses the architecture of the planned missile defense system in detail and gives an overview of the types of countermeasures an attacker might use to foil this defense. The report also describes three readily available countermeasures in detail.