Enemy missiles come with decoys and other measures that future U.S. missile defense must take into account. The ultimate promise of the Pentagon’s new high-tech Next-Generation Interceptor (NGI) to shoot down enemy nuclear missiles may likely reside in the complex mixture of sensor and networking technologies woven into the NGI’s technical construction. This is largely because a kill vehicle able to track and destroy an enemy missile in space will not only need the requisite kinetic “force” but also must rely upon accurate sensing and guidance to effect a successful intercept. This is why emerging weapons systems, such as the Missile Defense Agency’s NGI program, are increasingly built with a specific mind to engineering hardened networking and command and control technologies, given the growing speed and sophistication with which enemy weapons systems are evolving.