August 30, 2006 :: UPI :: News
The Missile Defense Agency plans to speed up testing and deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, reports the UPI. THAAD is a ground-based missile defense system designed to protect forward-deployed troops and population centers from short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It uses a hit-to-kill, kinetic-energy warhead to intercept missiles during their final phase of flight, either outside the atmosphere or very high up in the atmosphere. Under the MDA’s previous schedule, THAAD would not have been deployable worldwide until fiscal year 2012. Yet according to Army Colonel Charles Driessnack, MDA’s project manager, MDA now plans to run testing activities concurrently in order to eliminate two years from the program and place THAAD in the field at the end of FY 2009 or in early FY 2010. The new timetable is a likely reflection of recent tests successes. This past June, THAAD successfully intercepted a non-separating unitary Hera target, demonstrating its ability to characterize a ballistic missile target in the high-endoatmosphere and destroy it.
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