The U.S. Defense Department spokesman for NMD, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Leaner, says that knowledge led the U.S. to place a higher priority on the project. And we're taking those steps now. But we've had tremendous benefit from the investment we made in SDI and indeed it has brought us to where we are today with advanced development effort for the current National Missile Defense technology. NMD is also designed to destroy enemy warheads by colliding with them in space. The collision causes no nuclear explosion, and any remaining debris from either missile incinerates upon re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
Early detection is key to the system's success.
On the ground, NMD plans to use five existing early-warning ground radar systems. It will also employ x-band radar, an advanced system now in development, that will be able to track precisely the path of an enemy missile and weed out decoy missiles launched alongside a real warhead. Many say it is also its weakest link. After separating from its booster rocket, the EKV must rely on its own propulsion, guidance and communication systems while still receiving updated information from the NMD command center on Earth. The system was given three test-runs during the Clinton administration, but only the first was successful.