Ronald T. Kadish

About the author: Ronald T. Kadish, a lieutenant general in the U.S. Air Force, heads the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Formerly called the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), the MDA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense that supports and conducts research and development of programs to defend the United States, deployed forces, and allies against missile attacks.

The United States faces a far different missile threat than it did in the Cold War, one that calls for missile defense. Intercepting and destroying a missile in space is a difficult but not impossible task. Researchers have developed kill vehicles with their own guidance systems that can hit and obliterate incoming missiles—a method called hit-to-kill. The American military has successfully tested several missile defense vehicles and...