Budget realities and the high cost of firing scores of interceptors against targets have forced test teams to rely heavily on computer-based testing. That's an awfully tough assignment given the size and speed of missile threats, the areas to be covered and targeting problems.
Technologists are confident new sensors, computers and kinetic kill vehicles can do the job.
If they are right, 21st century allied battlefields and the U.S. homeland could be shielded by operational missile defense systems. But there is a potential weak link in the chain of development, evaluation and deployment, and that is testing. Budget realities and the high cost of firing scores of interceptors against targets have forced test teams to rely heavily on computer-based testing. Computers and software have come a long way. But many of us easily recall a bomb released from an aircraft wing snapping nose up and slicing through a horizontal stabilizer, although simulations indicated that could not happen.