The Boeing Co.-made Ground-based Midcourse Defense System includes a fleet of 30 rocket-like interceptors in underground silos at the Army’s Fort Greely, Alaska, and the Air Force’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The last successful exercise of the technology — designed to knock down incoming threats from such countries as North Korea and Iran — occurred in late 2008.
On Sunday, a three-stage booster launched from Vandenberg rammed into a dummy warhead fired from a test site on the Kwajalein Atoll in Marshall Islands, the Pentagon announced in a statement. The interceptor featured a newer type of exoatmospheric kill vehicle, or EKV, which sat atop the interceptor and destroyed the projectile on impact.
“This is a very important step in our continuing efforts to improve and increase the reliability of our homeland ballistic missile defense system,” Navy Vice Adm. James Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said in the statement.
Chicago-based Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, was equally enthusiastic.
“Today’s test demonstrated the system’s performance under an expanded set of conditions that reflect real-world operational requirements,” Jim Chilton, vice president and general manager of the company’s Strategic Missile & Defense Systems, said in a press release.
After the intermediate-range dummy missile was launched from the Reagan Test Site, the Navy destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) detected the target using its Aegis Weapon System and AN/SPY-1 radar, which sent data to the GMD fire-control system, according to the Pentagon statement. The sea-based X-band radar also tracked the object and relayed information to assist with target engagement and data collection, it stated.
About six minutes after the target was launched, the interceptor lifted off from Vandenberg, according to the Pentagon statement. The booster propelled the second-generation kill vehicle, known as the Capability Enhancement II EKV, into the target’s projected trajectory, it stated. The vehicle maneuvered to the target, performed discrimination and intercepted the warhead, it stated.
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