The Pentagon's missile-defense program has already cost $100 billion and strained relations with the Russians, and it has yet to prove its real-world value. Hitting a bullet with a bullet -- the heart of the system -- is a difficult enough task. But a new report from the U.S. Government Accounting Office reveals that the Pentagon is even having problems launching the practice targets needed to test the system.

In the first full-scale test of the ballistic missile defense system in more than a year, an interceptor rocket launched from California on Friday shot down a target fired from Alaska that officials said in some respects resembled a warhead from a North Korean rocket.

U.S. military forces launched a rocket interceptor that destroyed a mock warhead in outer space, giving the Pentagon a much-desired win in its costly and controversial effort to develop a defense against long-range missile strikes.

Missile defense proponents view North Korea's firing of seven missiles as the first real test of the new U.S. ground-based missile defense, even though the failure of the long-range Taepodong-2 seconds after launch prevented the Pentagon from responding with a U.S.-based interceptor.

After an embarrassing series of test failures in the ambitious, expensive and highly criticized program to build a national missile-defense shield, the U.S. military is slowing the deployment of interceptors while it conducts more testing.

The first test in almost two years of the planned multi-billion dollar US anti-missile shield has failed, possibly delaying the deployment of the system.

The Pentagon is set to declare operational soon a multibillion dollar system intended to defend America from attack by ballistic missiles, but which critics say will not work.

An independent review of the multibillion-dollar U.S. ballistic missile shield due to start operating by Sept. 30 finds that it is technically incapable of shooting down any incoming warheads.

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Confused by multiple radar signals in a crowded airspace, the Army's Patriot antimissile system probably created false tracks of incoming enemy missiles and automatically fired, killing three allied jet pilots during fighting in Iraq a year ago, according to MIT physicist Theodore Postol.

Independent analysis shows that the U.S. Patriot missile defense system is regularly malfunctioning and bringing down friendly aircraft.