United States has had in development a nationwide antimissile program since the 1990s.
Some anti-satellite technology might have been useful in the antimissile program.
The Russian military is strongly opposed to the antimissile program.
Critics charge that the Government is weighing the use of such nuclear arms in the American antimissile program.
Critics say the antimissile program is ignoring an intractable problem.
The public war of words over the Soviet Union's antimissile program tends to generate more heat than light.
But critics of the antimissile program suspected that another factor at work was a desire to influence Congress.
Republican supporters of missile defense are likely to criticize the Clinton administration's management of the antimissile program.
However, there have been far more failures than successes in antimissile programs - and at least one falsified success.
For their part, officials in the antimissile program maintain that the system can sift through the decoys.