It has been a decade since the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) effected its first intercept of a target missile.
On June 10, 1999, a THAAD missile successfully intercepted a ballistic missile target over White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Lockheed Martin Corp.[LMT], the THAAD contractor, noted.
It also has been a quarter of a century since the first hit-to-kill intercept of a ballistic missile target outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Developed by Lockheed Martin, the Army Homing Overlay Experiment vehicle destroyed a target missile through force of impact alone above the Pacific Ocean on June 10, 1984, pioneering today’s non-nuclear ballistic missile defense technology.