By Ann Roosevelt
Lockheed Martin [LMT] yesterday reported another successful Patriot Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) test and first ripple fire test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
“This time we had a ripple fire of two MSE missiles that were scheduled to intercept a tactical ballistic missile high above the desert in White Sands,” said Mike Trotsky, vice president of Air & Missile Defense at Lockheed Martin, during a teleconference.
The MSE also advances lower-tier defenses against ballistic missiles, even as it is a variant of the current PAC-3 Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI).
“The MSE missile will close the gap that exists between the current PAC-3 CRI missile and the lower boundary of THAAD,” Trotsky said. “With MSE there won’t be any gap any more.”
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD missile system, protects against ballistic missiles in the endo- and exo-atmosphere. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on the system, which is managed by the Missile Defense Agency.
The two missiles did everything they were designed to do in yesterday’s test, he said. It was the first ripple fire test and the first at the design altitude for the MSE.
This test comes just over a year after a successful interception of a threat-representative tactical ballistic missile (Defense Daily, Feb. 19, 2010).
“The first missile did intercept the target with extremely good accuracy at the design altitude, and the second missile, which was very shortly behind actually intercepted a piece of the debris from the original impact,” Trotsky said.
The MSE is an adaptation of the current PAC-3 missile, using the sophisticated electronics from the current missile and larger solid rocket motor with two pulse technology, a higher performance actuator and larger aerodynamic surfaces, and a single canister package. The MSE variant incorporates threat-driven and technology-enabled hardware and software upgrades to defend against the advancing threat set.
The MSE works with the Patriot system and the multinational Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) system. The PAC-3 MSE missile was selected as the primary interceptor for MEADS in September 2006.
The MSE is an Army program in the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space. It is managed by the Lower Tier Project Office and the NATO MEADS Management Agency, MEADS project office.