There’s simply no pleasing some people.

In the 1990s, Congress decided it was time for the United States to build a missile-defense system. This was a reasonable -- even overdue -- step. After all, we’d been completely defenseless against any sort of missile attack since the missile had been invented.

But not everybody liked the idea.

For example, in 2000 the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report that questioned the technical feasibility of a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system. The report claimed it would be extremely difficult to hit an incoming missile, especially since our enemies would likely employ countermeasures designed to confuse our defense systems.

“Past U.S. missile-defense tests against missiles using ‘countermeasures’ did not demonstrate that defenses could defeat such countermeasures,” the scientists insisted. Since “an attacker could deploy such countermeasures before even the first phase of the NMD system was operational,” they added, “it makes no sense to begin deployment.”

To give these scientists their due, it is indeed difficult to “hit a bullet with a bullet,” which is what a mid-flight missile interceptor must do. But what they failed to take into account was American ingenuity.

Last month, about 75 miles above the Pacific Ocean, a “kill vehicle” from our bare-bones missile-defense system did what these scientists said wouldn’t be possible in practice. It destroyed the mock warhead of a long-range missile. That’s especially heartening because similar technology is used in three other missile-defense systems. It wasn’t the first time UCS experts were proven wrong. Over the last seven years these four programs have passed their tests -- “done the impossible” -- roughly 80 percent of the time.

The dire predictions of the Union of Concerned Scientists have been, well, shot down repeatedly. The system works. Not perfectly (which is why we must keep testing and perfecting the technology), but far better than expected. Continued...