In its annual report, the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) says its assessment of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system remain unchanged and has “a limited capability to defend the U.S. Homeland from small numbers of simple intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missile threats launched from North Korea or Iran.”
By USAF [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) have low reliability and availability and new failure modes are being discovered during testing.
“GMD intercept flight tests have not adequately spanned the operational battlespace to provide data for validation, and subsequent accreditation, of key modeling and simulation,” the report states.