I recall a few years ago a false civil defense alert was broadcast in Hawaii warning of an imminent missile strike presumably from North Korea. The panicked populace of Hawaii knew they were defenseless and were prepared to be annihilated. Had Reagan’s much maligned “ Stars Wars” missile defense system been in place and improved with decades of new technology attacks by rogue states or even China or Russia could be largely repelled.
I believe that there's an "Aegis Ashore" location in Kauai, Hawaii. A "test station", allegedly.
The technolgy at the time was wholly inadequate in the first place. THere have been enormous advances since then. Much of what we are seeing now only became technically feasible in the last few years.