By Ann Roosevelt

Missile Defense Agency (MDA) late Tuesday announced the successful completion of a simultaneous interception of two ballistic missile targets for its sea-based anti-missile Aegis BMD system.

Conducted jointly with the Navy, this was MDA’s latest hit-to-kill intercept flight test conducted jointly off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. Aegis BMD is designed to intercept and destroy short to intermediate-range ballistic missile threats.

For the first time, the operationally realistic test involved two unitary targets, where the warheads did not separate from the boosting rockets. The test also was the first successful attempt by any U.S. BMD system at dual exo-atmospheric intercepts.

Designated Flight Test Standard Missile-13 (FTM-13), it marked the 10th and 11th successful intercepts of 13 targets in 12 scheduled flight tests for the Aegis BMD program, a sea-based component of the Agency’s Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS).

MDA and the Navy cooperatively manage the Aegis BMD Program.

Lockheed Martin [LMT] is the prime contractor for the Aegis BMD. Raytheon [RTN] is the prime contractor for the SM-3 missile. Boeing [BA], partnered with Raytheon on SM-3 development since 1996, builds and integrates several components of the SM-3 kinetic warhead.

Navy cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70) conducted the mission using the tactically certified 3.6 Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense shipboard weapon system and the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IA interceptor.

At about 6:12 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time (11:12 p.m. EST), a target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. Moments later, a second, identical target was launched from the PMRF.

The targets–Aegis Readiness Assessment Vehicle (ARAV)–are new vehicles, first used in an Aegis BMD test earlier this year, Joe Rappisi, Lockheed Martin program manager Maritime BMD programs, said in a recent teleconference.

The Lake Erie‘s Aegis BMD Weapon System detected and tracked the targets and developed fire control solutions, MDA said in a statement.

Approximately two minutes later, the Lake Erie‘s crew fired two SM-3 missiles. Two minutes later, they successfully intercepted the targets outside the earth’s atmosphere more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kauai. The targets were destroyed when the missiles impacted directly with the targets.

Japanese guided missile destroyer, JS Kongo, also participated in the flight test, MDA said. Kongo will be the first ship in Japan’s fleet to have a sea-based BMD.

The Kongo used the test as a training exercise in preparation for the first ballistic missile intercept test by a Japanese ship planned for later this year.

Stationed off Kauai and equipped with the certified 3.6 Aegis BMD weapon system, Kongo performed long-range surveillance and tracking exercises.

This event marked the fourth time an allied military unit participated in a U.S. Aegis BMDS test. Japan has purchased Aegis BMD capability for their Kongo-class Aegis destroyers and in 2006 began Aegis BMD installation.

FTM-13 is the penultimate mission in this program phase, Rappisi said.

The next step, FTM-14, is scheduled for the latter half of 2008 and will test the Tactical Digital Information Links (TADIL) capability–remote cueing, Rappisi said. “It’s also the first time we’ll test our Near-Term sea based terminal capabilities as well, which is an endo-atmospheric intercept versus the exo-atmospheric intercepts we’ve been doing, so kind of an interesting test for us, too, coming up there.”

Nick Bucci, Lockheed Martin director of Aegis BMD Development, said, “As we add capability to a system, we do ‘build a little, test a little, learn a lot,’ so we go to test the new capability that we’re bringing in. So, as we bring a new generation of the system on, in the case of 4.0.1, we’ll go out and test all those capabilities. The other dimension is the threat or the target, and we look at different types of targets and different regimes as Joe [Rappisi] mentioned. Endo-atmosphere, exo-atmosphere, separating targets, unitary targets, those kinds of things, looking to test the system and test the capabilities. We also do the [electronic warfare], so it’s really showing the different corners of the envelope of the system’s capability as you bring capability on.”

Rappisi said, “The test and evaluation group of PD 452 [Navy Aegis BMD program office], our customer, they have encapsulated the philosophy of testing in a very simple phrase. They say we test to verify, not to be surprised…When we fly one of these missions, we go at it trying to verify that these capabilities are in fact in. They’re robustly designed and we have margin on the design.”

The Navy plans to have 18 Aegis BMD-equipped ships. Currently, nine Navy Aegis ships can conduct long-range search and track and engage ballistic missiles.

Another seven Aegis ships are equipped with Aegis BMD long-range surveillance and track capability. “Those seven will be going through additional upgrades to modify the launchers to fire the SM-3 missile, so we’ll eventually, by the end of next year, have all 18 upgraded,” Rappisi said.

The 17th and 18th ships being modifying are the first two East Coast ships, he said. The first ship’s install and modifications are currently under way. It will be done by the end of this year. The second East Coast Aegis ship will be completed about the first quarter of next year.

Ultimately, 15 Aegis destroyers and three Aegis cruisers will have the ability to engage short to intermediate range ballistic missile threats and support other BMDS engagements using the Aegis BMD Weapon System and the SM-3.

Aegis BMD elements include AN/SPY-1 radar, weapons control, command and decision, MK 41 Vertical Launch System, and SM-3 Block IA missiles. The Aegis BMD Weapon System also integrates with the BMDS, receiving track data from and providing track information to other BMDS elements.

The Aegis Weapon System is currently deployed on 83 ships around the globe with more than 20 additional ships planned or under contract. In addition to the United States and Japan, Aegis is the maritime weapon system of choice for South Korea, Norway, Spain and Australia.