Interceptor Strikes Target... But There Was A Glitch

The US military scored a badly-needed victory Friday in its quest to implement a full-scale ballistic missile defense shield. The Missile Defense Agency shot down a mock enemy missile, employing a synchronized network of sensors in what officials called the largest and most complex test of the missile defense system to date.

A mock target missile was fired from Kodiak, AK at 3:04 pm EST. About 30 minutes later, an interceptor missile was fired from a silo at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, under the direction of soldiers based at Fort Greely, AK.

The two successfully collided off the coast of California minutes later... marking the first time the agency has been able to synchronize its network of varied sensor types and frequencies to successfully track, report and intercept a single target, the agency's top officer said.

"Overall, I'm extremely pleased, because ... the core of our missile defense system is the fact that we can operate in layers and have multiple systems working together," Army Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O'Reilly said. "The key to our protection and the effectiveness of the systems is to have all of these different sensors simultaneously tracking, and the system [knowing] exactly that it's not multiple objects, it's one object up there."

If the multiple radars did not work together, each would have reported a different target to the system.

The test combined an early warning radar system south of Sacramento, CA; a temporary mobile radar system posted in Juneau, AK; two AEGIS ballistic missile defense ships off the Pacific coast; and, a sea-based radar system.

The test also marked the first time soldiers from the 49th Missile Defense Battalion based at Fort Greely were in control of the launch. On previous tests, a Colorado Springs-based unit was used.

Each of the systems was networked together, despite their varied sizes and frequencies, to form an accurate, single-target track, O'Reilly said.

Soldiers, airmen and sailors operated all parts of the system, and the USS Benfold, a Navy guided-missile destroyer equipped with the AEGIS air-defense system, went through all of the motions of a simulated intercept successfully, O'Reilly said.

"What we showed today is all those sensors working together," he said. "At any one time, the system knew which sensor was reporting ... and tracking it and it gave the warfighter a presentation of the target. It is the first time we have ever done that in an actual test and with our soldiers [and sailors and airmen] operating it."

Not everything went to plan, though. Officials had hoped to deploy countermeasures -- like chaff, decoys or replicas -- during the flight that would test the system's reaction to multiple objects. That didn't happen.

"Countermeasures are very difficult to deploy," O'Reilly (shown below) said. "We have had trouble deploying them in the past."

Officials noted even though the countermeasures didn't deploy, the upper stage of the mock enemy missile was still in the area... giving the interceptor a test to determine which of the two objects to hit, based on sensor data.

Pentagon officials said this test was "very realistic" and followed a trajectory and mimicked a launch similar to one the U.S. military believes could be a threat.

The test cost $120 million to $150 million. Thirteen similar tests have been conducted since 1999, seven successfully hitting their targets. The last previous test, in September 2007, was successful.

(Aero-News thanks Fred W. Baker III, American Forces Press Service)

FMI: www.defenselink.mil, www.mda.mil/