A continuing program of test and analysis should be implemented to maintain the technical capacity that will be needed to support an adequate level of discrimination as new countermeasures are developed and deployed, the report says.

“A serious effort [is needed] to gather and understand data from past and future flight tests and experiments (including flights of U.S. missiles) from the full range of sensors and to make full use of the extensive data collected from past experiments to generate robust discrimination techniques and algorithms.”

The report says, “The effort required for success in this endeavor does not need to be overlarge but does require that high-quality expertise be brought to bear. The annual budget outlay, if planned correctly, can be modest compared to current expenditures.”

The Missile Defense Agency , the report says, should strengthen its systems analysis and engineering capability in order to do a better job of assessing system performance and evaluating new initiatives before significant funding is committed. “Cost-benefit analysis should be central to that capability,” the report says.