By Ann Roosevelt
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system, built by Lockheed Martin [LMT] and managed by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), is expanding its target set by going after separating targets in its next series of tests, according to a company official.
MDA announced the Oct. 26 test of the THAAD element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) resulted in the intercept of a ballistic missile target at the Pacific Missile Range Facility off the island of Kauai in Hawaii.
Tom McGrath, Lockheed Martin vice president-THAAD, said: “Next spring, we’ll fly against a separating target. It will be a low-mid endo[atmospheric] flight for the intercept altitude, and then about year from now we’ll fly flight test 10, which will be another big milestone for us because it will be a salvo shot, two interceptors going after a single incoming.”
Flight test 10 will also be integrated with Patriot and Aegis, and MDA’s BMDS command and control battle management, McGrath told reporters in an Oct. 29 teleconference.
MDA said preliminary indications are that planned flight test objectives from the Oct. 26 test were achieved. The target missile, representing a SCUD-type ballistic missile, was launched from a mobile platform, while the THAAD was launched from the Pacific Missile Range site.
“For now all the data we’ve seen looks like all of our test goals met and as a matter of fact exceeded in every instance thus far,” McGrath said.
The test was the 31st successful hit-to-kill intercept in 39 tests since 2001 by ground and sea-based interceptors against short, medium and long-range ballistic missile targets.
The test was a milestone for the program, McGrath said. “This was our final test against a unitary target. With the data off flight tests 3,6,7 and now 8 we feel that our models are validated and verified and we’ll now move on and our next opportunities will be against separating targets.”
The tests examined the THAAD missile’s abilities against the physical characteristics, altitudes and speeds, and each test adds complexity, though much of it cannot be discussed, he said.
MDA said in a statement the primary objective of this test was to demonstrate integrated operations of the system, including radar, launcher, fire control equipment and procedures, and the interceptor to detect, track and destroy the target missile using hit-to-kill technology.
Raytheon [RTN] builds the THAAD radar. Raytheon and Lockheed Martin jointly developed the fire control software.
Pratt & Whitney [UTX] Rocketdyne produces the engine control system for the defensive vehicle, called a divert and attitude control system, or DACS.
BAE SYSTEMS produces the seeker that provides infrared imagery of the target warhead to guide the interceptor to the target.
“In this test, the THAAD missile intercepted its target at a higher altitude than any other test to date,” John Watkins, BAE’s THAAD program manager in Nashua, N. H., said in a statement.
Other objectives included demonstrating the performance of an interceptor that had been “hot conditioned,” or heated to a certain temperature before launching; and demonstrating the ability of the interceptor to perform correctly in the “endgame,” or final seconds before target intercept, the statement said.
Soldiers from the 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, operated all THAAD equipment, and their ability to conduct operations was also observed.
There will be another 24-30 months of THAAD testing that will encompass some 14 planned tests, McGrath said.
Meanwhile, “There’s a fair amount of interest” in the THAAD system, McGrath said, “surprising to me,” since the system is not fielded to units yet. Some nations have been talking to Lockheed Martin about THAAD, since its defended area could provide a national missile defense for smaller countries. More interest is expected as the program moves closer to fielding.
THAAD is the first weapon system with both endoatmospheric and exoatmospheric capability developed specifically to defend against short, medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles.
The THAAD system will provide high-altitude missile defense over a larger area than the complementary Patriot system, and, like the Patriot, intercepts a ballistic missile target in the terminal phase of flight. Patriot and THAAD, as well as the long-range Ground-based Midcourse Defense and the sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, all use hit- to-kill technology.
The BMDS MDA is developing and testing is to be able to provide a layered, integrated defense for the U.S. homeland, deployed forces and allies against ballistic missiles of all ranges, in all phases of flight.
The THAAD program is managed by MDA and executed by the THAAD project office in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor. A production contract for the first two fire units was awarded to Lockheed Martin in late 2006. Deliveries will support a first unit equipped in FY ’09.