I was looking for a mention of the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka "Star Wars". Among the technical issues the program never overcame was the ability to adequately recognize incoming missiles and guide anti-missile defenses to the target. Much like the Igloo White and Assault Breaker systems mentioned in the article, it failed to distinguish decoys from real.
> Among the technical issues the program never overcame was the ability to adequately recognize incoming missiles and guide anti-missile defenses to the target.
This is factually inaccurate, both of these were proven capabilities several decades ago. The biggest technical issue with ballistic missile intercept was getting the new hypersonic rocket motors they wanted to use to respond to guidance commands with sufficient precision. It was a materials science problem; if you put the same package on a normal rocket motor it (demonstrably) worked just fine.
"respond to guidance commands with sufficient precision" is just restating the same problem.
"if you put the same package on a normal rocket motor it (demonstrably) worked just fine." Except that the interceptor wouldn't be able to reach the target traveling at hypersonic speeds.
In other words, the guidance didn't work. Either the interceptor missed because it was off target or it missed because it was too slow. Dressing it up in technicalities doesn't negate the failure for the purposes of SDI.
