be degraded. To combat this, Russia proposed that any ABM system enacted by NATO must be universal to operate, cover the entirety of the European continent, and not upset any nuclear parity. The United States actively sought NATO involvement in the creation of an ABM system, and saw an Iranian threat as a sufficient reason to warrant its creation. The United States also had plans to create missile defense facilities, but NATO officials feared that it would have provided protection to Europe, it would have detracted from the responsibility of NATO for collective defense. The officials also argued the potential prospect of U.S-commanded operation system that would work in conjunction with the Article 5 defense of NATO. On 15 December 2016, the US Army SMDC had a successful test of a U.S. Army Zombie Pathfinder rocket, to be used as a target for exercising various anti-ballistic missile scenarios. The rocket was launched as part of NASA's sounding rocket program, at White Sands Missile Range. In November 2020, the US successfully destroyed a dummy ICBM. The ICBM was launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the general direction of Hawaii, triggering a satellite warning to a Colorado Air Force base, which then contacted the . The ship launched a SM-3 Block IIA missile to destroy the US dummy, still outside the atmosphere. Bloomberg Opinion writes that this defense ability "ends the era of nuclear stability". See also 2010 Chinese anti-ballistic missile test Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System Atmospheric entry Command systems in the United States Army Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Programme Kinetic kill vehicle Missile defense Anti-torpedo torpedoes Multiple Kill Vehicle National Missile Defense Nuclear disarmament Nuclear proliferation Nuclear warfare Safeguard/Sentinel ABM system Spartan (missile) Sprint (missile) Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Notes Citations General sources Murdock, Clark A. (1974), Defense Policy Formation: A Comparative Analysis of the McNamara Era. SUNY Press. Further reading Laura Grego and David Wright, "Broken Shield: Missiles designed to destroy incoming nuclear warheads fail frequently in tests and could increase global risk of mass destruction", Scientific American, vol. 320, no. no. 6 (June 2019), pp. 62–67. "Current U.S. missile defense plans are being driven largely by technology, politics and fear. Missile defenses will not allow us to escape our vulnerability to nuclear weapons. Instead large-scale developments will create barriers to taking real steps toward reducing nuclear risks—by blocking further cuts in nuclear arsenals and potentially spurring new deployments."