Department of Defense's Ground-based Midcourse Defense Program.
The purpose of the Department of Defense's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program is to develop and potentially deploy an efficient, effective system that detects, tracks and destroys incoming missiles before they enter our atmosphere. The program is in its development phase. After the first three years of development, integration and testing, if the missile threat warrants it, the GMD system could be deployed and operational within five more years. If the missile threat does not warrant deployment, the development of an improved, more capable system would continue. If a decision is made to deploy during the continuing development, a GMD system can be deployed within five years.