MissileThreat.com

Alternate Name:	Kwajalein Missile Range
Country:	USA
Associated Country:	Marshall Islands

Details

The Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site (RTS), also known as the Kwajalein Missile Range, is located at the Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. Operated by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), the facility has served as the premiere U.S. offensive and defensive missile testing ground since the end of World War II.

 

Kwajalein, the world’s largest atoll, is located within the Marshall Islands and consists of a boomerang-shaped ring of 93 islets surrounding an 850-square mile lagoon, also the largest of its kind. The Marshall Islands are part of a region known as Micronesia, meaning “small islands,” which encompasses a diverse group of coral atolls and islets halfway between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea. Hawaii is the closest U.S. location, approximately 2,500 miles northeast of the Marshalls. The weather at Kwajalein is characteristically tropical: hot and humid, hovering around 80° F, with frequent storms.

 

Micronesia was first colonized by Spain in 1494, and sold to the Germans in 1885 for $4.5 million. Japan captured the region in 1914 and began fortifying key atolls and islets (including Kwajalein) during the 1930s in preparation for war. After fierce fighting in 1943 and 1944, the U.S. overran the large Japanese air and naval bases on Mili, Jaluit, Maloelap, Wotje, and Kwajalein. Following the war, the Marshall Islands became one of six entities in the new Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, established by the U.N. and administered by the U.S.

 

Beginning in 1946, the U.S. turned the Marshall Islands into a staging ground for a series of atomic and hydrogen bomb tests, most of which took place on the Bikini and Enewetak atolls. In 1954, the U.S. detonated the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever tested, known as “Bravo.” Radiation from the blast was so intense that Marshallese and U.S. military personnel had to be evacuated from the region, although all were allowed to return by 1957. In later years, the U.S. tested new missile systems such as Titan, Polaris, Minuteman, Atlas, Nike, Sprint, and the MX.

 

In 1982, the region became officially known as the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Four years later, Congress approved the Compact of Free Association between the U.S. and the RMI. The Compact granted the RMI its sovereignty and promised U.S. economic and military aid (approximately $65 million per year) in exchange for the continued U.S. military use of the Kwajalein Atoll for missile testing. Since 1990, the U.S. has provided approximately $1 billion in aid to the RMI, which has significantly benefited the region’s 9,500 inhabitants.

 

In addition to economic and military aid, the Pentagon has invested $4 billion in high-tech detection, tracking, and targeting equipment at Kwajalein, a combination of state-of-the-art radars, optical, and telemetry sensors, all of which are designed to support offensive and defensive test missile launches. At present, the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site is operated by a government-contractor team that includes military personnel, government civilians, technical support contractors, and scientists. In 2002, SMDC awarded a $626 million contract to a Bechtel-Lockheed Martin group known as Kwajalein Range Services, which currently manages technical operations and provides logistical support to RTS.

 

Large scale U.S. investment in the Marshall Islands is due to the fact that the Kwajalein Atoll provides an almost perfect environment for missile testing. The region’s vastness and relative isolation minimizes the ecological and safety constraints that normally accompany such tests, thus allowing the Pentagon to perform simulations that would be impossible over the mainland U.S. RTS, in fact, is the only U.S. test facility that can simulate the exoatmospheric interception of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Most long-range interceptors that are currently in development are “exoatmospheric,” meaning that they are designed to destroy their targets outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

In a typical scenario, a target ICBM is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, approximately 4,800 miles from RTS. The missile streaks through the upper reaches of the atmosphere in a simulated attack on the center of the Kwajalein lagoon, and is targeted and destroyed by an interceptor missile launched from RTS. In a 2002 test, for instance, a Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) from RTS destroyed an ICBM launched from Vandenberg at an altitude of 140 miles and a closing speed in excess of 15,000 miles per hour. The U.S. is currently deploying these same GBIs at Vandenberg and Fort Greely, Alaska, in what will become the first national missile defense system.

 

In addition to testing long-range interceptor missiles, RTS has the ability to support interceptions of Scuds and other short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in various tactical scenarios, thus allowing it to serve as a test site for smaller, mobile systems such as the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3).

 

The U.S. plans to spend approximately $1.5 billion on missile defense research and development at the Kwajalein Atoll over the next decade. As the Pentagon moves forward with its deployment of interceptor missiles in Alaska and California, the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site will continue to play an essential role in the strategic defense of the U.S.

 

 

Sources

 

“Boeing-Led Missile Defense Team Scores Another ‘Hit’; Successful System Test Includes Intercept Over Pacific.” Boeing Press Release, 14 October 2002.
Federation of American Scientists.
Gildea, Kerry. “GAO Upholds Pick of Bechtel-Lockheed Martin Team For Kwajalein Missile Range.” Defense Daily, 23 January 2003.
Gildea, Kerry. “SMDC to Select Range Operations Contractor for Kwajalein Missile Range.” Defense Daily, 10 December 2001.
InfoPlease.
Kwajalein Range Services, LLP.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.
Space & Missile Defense Command, Test & Evaluation Center.
“U.S. Army Forecast to Spend $1.55 Billion on Missile Test Site.” Forecast International Press Releases, 22 September 2003.
“U.S. Says It Wants Kwajalein Missile Test Range for 40 More Years.” Agence France-Presse, 29 May 2002.
Woodard, Colin. “Marshall Islands: Time to Re-Up at Kwajalein.” The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, January-February 2000, pp. 19, 69.

Minuteman III Test a Success

September 16, 2004 :: News

An unarmed Minuteman III ICBM was test-launched early today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The missile traveled some 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein missile range, also known as the Ronald Reagan Test Site, in the southern Pacific Ocean. (Article, Link) 

» More stories on: Testing - American

» Missile details: Minuteman III

» Missile system details for: Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site (RTS)

U.S. Tests Minuteman III from Vandenberg AFB

July 23, 2004 :: News

A Minuteman III missile was launched early this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, the third test flight of an American ICBM from that base in a month. The missile traveled some 4,800 miles and delivered its dummy warhead to the Ronald Reagan missile range in the Kwajalein atoll. (Article, Link) 

» More stories on: Testing - American

» Missile details: Minuteman III

» Missile system details for: Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site (RTS)

Peacekeeper Missile Test Launched

July 21, 2004 :: The Lompoc Record :: News

The United States today test launched an unarmed Peacekeeper (also called the “MX”) missile, the second to last test scheduled for the program. The routine Peacekeeper test took place from Vandenberg Air Force Base, and was directed to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Pacific Ocean, some 4,800 miles distant. The test is said to have included the delivery of eight unarmed warheads to the missile range. (Article, Link) 

» More stories on: Testing - American

» Missile details: Peacekeeper

» Missile system details for: Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site (RTS)

Total Records: 13	« 1 [2]