Aegis Missile Defense Test Successful
December 11, 2003 :: Department of Defense :: News
The Missile Defense Agency and the Navy today conducted the fourth test of the Aegis sea-based missile defense system, which was a success. The test involved the launch of a short range target missile from Kauai, Hawaii. Some two minutes later, a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor was launched from the USS Lake Erie Aegis cruiser. Two minutes after this, the SM-3 intercepted and destroyed the target missile with its own kinetic force.
Before the USS Lake Erie launched its SM-3 missile, however, it received additional tracking information conveyed from another Aegis destroyer, the USS Russell, located near the island of Kauai, to serve as a test of coordinating multiple sources of tracking information.
After being put onto the right course by the SM-3 missile, the kinetic warhead tracked and closed upon the target missile, finally impacting it at an altitude of 137 km and at a closing speed of some 3.7 km/sec.
The Aegis system is one of the many “hit to kill” technologies which demonstrates time and again it is indeed possible to “hit a bullet with a bullet.” The sea-based system is but one important part of the layered defense necessary to protect the United States.
Update: The director of the Pentagon’s Office of Operational Test and Evaluation, Thomas Christie, told Inside the Pentagon in a December 15 interview that the Aegis Test was a “success.”
“It showed you can…pick up the [enemy] missile after it was launched, with the destroyer passing information to the cruiser, which had the Standard Missile-3 intercept the target,” the Pentagon’s top test official noted.
Christie also said the intercept gave the Pentagon confidence in its plan for a layered missile defense system that utilizes different components at different stages of the operation. (Article, Link)
» Picture of missile launch
» More stories on: Sea-Based Systems, Technology, Testing - American
» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD
Lockheed to Produce Targets for MD Tests
December 9, 2003 :: San Diego Union Tribune :: News
The Department of Defense announced that the Missile Defense Agency has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin for the MDA Targets and Countermeasures Program. The contract has the potential to last up to 10 years and be worth a maximum of 4.6 billion. Lockheed would produce the “dummy” interceptor targets and countermeasures which are used to develop and test the wide array of missile defense systems.
The testing of countermeasures and finding ways to overcome them is of special importance. Countermeasures are systems used by the missile to distract attention from itself or confuse missile defenses. They are thus potential means of circumventing or complicating missile interception. While advanced countermeasures are unlikely to be used by “rogue” states, they are a possibility with Russia and China.
In sum, the flurry of contracts over the past two weeks represent a serious concern with serious programs. While more attention should be be given advanced programs in space, the attention to continued testing and boost phase defenses continues along the right path. (Article, Link)
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Major MDA Contract for Boost-Phase Interceptor
December 3, 2003 :: San Diego Union Tribune :: News
After an eight month competition with Lockheed Martin, the Missile Defense Agency has awarded an eight-year, 4.5 billion dollar contract to Northrop Grumman to produce an interceptor to destroy ballistic missiles during their boost-phase. This is the MDA’s first “capability-based” contract, and involves a design that would have been banned under the old ABM Treaty.
The contract is to produce a ground-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI). Its use of kinetic energy simply means that the interceptor would physically impact the missile: “hit-to-kill” technology. Unlike the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) being constructed in Alaska which would intercept long-range missiles during their midcourse phase in space, the KEI, while ground-based is designed to intercept missiles in their boost phase, that is, during their ascent. As the boost phase for even a long-range missile is no more than roughly five minutes, the KEI would have to be located near enough the launch site of the enemy missile in order to still reach it during that phase. It also has to accelerate very fast, perhaps as much as 5,000 miles per hour. This particular interceptor design would be compatible of being launched from either land or sea. It would be capable of being loaded onto aircraft and deployed anywhere in the world. Northrop Grumman will likely initially produce five mobile launchers for the KEI.
A layered-defense is ultimately necessary, but interception during the boost-phase has a number of advantages. It is during this phase that a missile is at its most vulnerable: during ascent a missile is moving at a slower speed; the body of the missile is under considerable pressure; its exhaust plumes make it more visible and thus trackable; its fuel tanks, which are still attached, constitute a larger target; no countermeasures or decoys can be deployed, and of course should the interception fail, time remains for a second attempt in the midcourse or terminal phases. (Article, Link)
» DoD Release: Northrop Grumman Boost Phase contract
» More stories on: Budget, Land-Based Systems, Technology, Testing - American
» Missile system details for: Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI)
First MD Brigade Activated
October 25, 2003 :: Army News Service :: News
In anticipation of the Alaska Ground-Based missile defense system’s activation at the end of 2004, the first missile defense brigade has been activated at Peterson Air Force Base, in Colorado. Composed of both National Guardsmen and regular Army soldiers, the brigade will integrate the Fort Greely, Alaska system with the overall tracking systems of Northern Command based in Cheyenne mountain.
The comments of Lt. Gen. Joseph M. Cosumano Jr., the commanding general of U.S. Space and Missile Defense Command, are particularly noteworthy, as they reflect the bankruptcy of mutually assured destruction: “The missile defense strategy of the 20th century was largely based on the concept that rational countries won’t attack each other. We’ve learned in the 21st Century that that those theories don’t apply anymore. Hostile states, and even non-state hostile groups, now either have or are working on long-range missiles. This activation today of an important part of our homeland defense strategy allows us to defend against that threat.” (Article, Link)
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Blimps Considered for Layered BMD Architecture
October 22, 2003 :: MSNBC :: News
The MDA recently awarded a 40 million dollar contract to Lockheed to design solar-powered blimps which would be a part of a layered missile defense architecture. Some twenty-five times larger than those used by Goodyear, the umanned blimps with a payload capacity of two tons would remain at high altitude (65,000 ft) for up to several months at a time, for the purposes of identifying and tracking any missile launch. A prototype is expected to be completed in 2006.
Innovative efforts such as these should of course be encouraged. Serious strategic defenses demand a layered system, and air-based systems such as sensors and the air-borne laser (ABL)—both designed to complement a boost-phase interception, when the missile is the most vulnerable, should be given a role within such a system. While this sort of tracking system has certain unique mobility advantages, however, it also seems to be something of a half-hearted effort, one which works within the mainstream aversion to space-based defenses. Similar tracking systems placed in orbit would of course have a greater field of view than any craft at high altitude, and orbiting lasers would be able to intercept missiles much earlier in their ascent. Space-based defenses would also be much less susceptible to conventional attack. Similarly, the air-borne laser also has range limitations of several hundred kilometers, a distance far shorter than most ballistic missile’s paths. These systems, to be effective, would certainly have to be in the right place at the right time, and progress in these directions should not distract from the need for space-based defenses. (Article, Link)
» Former Director of SDIO Abrahamson assisting in ambitious blimp program
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GMD Booster Test Successful
August 16, 2003 :: The Missile Defense Agency :: News
Saturday’s test of a booster for the ground-based missile defense system was successful. The test launch, which took place from Vandenburg Air Force Base, did not involve an intercept attempt, but was only for the booster itself. More tests are planned for this fall.
The GMD system will be based in Fort Greely, with 16 planned interceptors. These are the interceptors which would carry the EKV, which employs “hit-to-kill” technology. There are also plans for another four interceptors based in California, at Vandenburg. This is part of the limited system the Bush administration has said will be deployed by late 2004. The system is limited, in that while it would defend against a few missiles launched from far away, such as from North Korea, it could not defend from either a large number of missiles such as would be launched from Russia or Communist China, or any number of short-range missiles launched from close by, such as from a ship off our coast. The GMD system nevertheless provides an important foundation for a more robust and layered system which would include defenses based on land, sea, and in space. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Technology, Testing - American
» Missile system details for: Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
Fort Bliss to Test New “Patriot Lite”
July 23, 2003 :: El Paso Times :: News
The Fort Bliss Army Base in Texas is set to test the latest configuration of the Patriot terminal defense interceptors. This “next phase” of the system is said to be smaller, more agile, and quicker to set up in the field. (Article, Link)
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» Missile system details for: Patriot
Bush Pushes for New Generation of Smaller, Cleaner Nuclear Weapons
July 6, 2003 :: USA Today :: News
Coupled to the idea that defenses against nuclear attack are necessary is the idea that nuclear war is possible. A new, smaller and cleaner, generation of nuclear weapons weapons is necessary to a credible, because usable, deterrent. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Nuclear Weapons, Technology, Testing - American
Sea Based Missile Test Fails for First Time
June 18, 2003 :: The Missile Defense Agency :: News
After successfully intercepting its targeted missile in its first three tests, the Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Navy reported that the SMC-3 sea-based interceptor mounted on an Aegis cruiser failed to complete an intercept in its fourth and latest test. (Article, Link)
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» Missile system details for: Aegis Ship-Based BMD
Bush Statement: Missile Defenses to be Deployed by 2004-2005
December 17, 2002 :: The White House :: News
The White House issued a statement by the president announcing that he had ordered the Department of Defense to deploy missile defenses by 2004-2005. (Article, Link)
» DoD Press Release, outlining deployment
» DoD Deployment briefing
» More stories on: Policy, Testing - American
