Missile Defense Watch: THAAD Successfully Intercepts Live Target
A missile is launched as part of the THAAD weapon system in an undated file photo. The U.S. military said it successfully tested on Wednesday a missile-shield component built by Lockheed Martin Corp. to shoot down a ballistic missile in the last minute or so of its flight.
Yahoo News: Lockheed Martin’s THAAD Weapon System Successfully Intercepts Live Target
First Integrated Weapon System Intercept of a Live Target
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT – News) and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) today successfully conducted a seeker characterization test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Weapon System at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), NM, today. The THAAD Weapon System successfully met all test objectives for the flight test. The system exceeded its objectives on the test by intercepting the Hera unitary target.
This is the third successful THAAD developmental flight test conducted since flight testing resumed for the program in November 2005. A successful controlled flight test was conducted last year, followed by a successful integrated test of the entire THAAD system in May of 2006. Two more test flights are scheduled to occur at WSMR before THAAD testing moves to Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.
THAAD is designed to defend U.S. troops, allied forces, population centers and critical infrastructure against short- to intermediate range ballistic missiles. THAAD comprises a fire control and communications system, interceptors, launchers and a radar. The THAAD interceptor uses hit-to-kill technology to destroy targets, and is the only weapon system that engages threat ballistic missiles at both endo- and exo-atmospheric altitudes.
Missile Threat of the Claremont Institute has Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)
And Read it All……
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is a mobile, land-based weapons program designed to destroy short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phases, just seconds before they explode over U.S. cities and military assets. One of the last lines of defense against weapons of mass destruction, THAAD will play a critical role in the Missile Defense Agency’s Ballistic Missile Defense System.
Upon completion, THAAD will be able to intercept incoming missiles both inside and just outside of the Earth’s atmosphere at a range of 200 kilometers. At such an altitude, it will be difficult for enemy missiles to launch decoys and countermeasures to fool the THAAD interceptor. In addition, THAAD will ensure the safe diffusion of any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, thus minimizing the risk of missile debris raining down on civilian or military populations.
The Army intends to build between 80 to 99 launchers, 18 ground based radars, and 1,422 interceptor missiles. Initial deployment is scheduled for 2008.
Great news about the successful test. The United States and its allies (including Israel and Japan) cannot deploy these defensive missiles fast enough.
Stay tuned……
Technorati Tags: THAAD, MissileDefenseAgency, BallisticMissileDefenseSystem
One Comment
john Carey
Flap: We all should congratulate the THAAD team on this momentous success! Missile Defense has come a long way since “Reagan’s Vision.” John Carey http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/
Ronald Reagan’s Vision
Predicted Need for Missile Defense Resonates Today
By John E. Carey
The Washington Times
Monday 26 June 2006
Ronald Reagan’s vision that the United States would one-day need a missile defense system was again validated last week when North Korea assembled and fueled a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to American cities.
On March 23, 1983, President Reagan announced from the oval office, “I’ve reached a decision which offers a new hope for our children in the 21st century.†He explained his vision—and his defense budget’s inclusion—of the genesis of this nation’s missile defense effort.
Liberals, and most of the media, derided the president’s project as “Star Wars.†Reagan’s visionary effort, which included men like Edward Teller as an advisor, proposed to assemble “the best and brightest†minds of American technology to master what critics considered the impossible dream: the in-flight destruction of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons headed toward the United States from hostile shores.
Now, again a grateful nation can pause to thank President Reagan.
Just last week, these activities underscored the success of this long struggle to master the difficult technological challenges of missile defense; challenges similar to those encountered by President Kennedy’s decision to put men on the moon:
–A U.S. Navy AEGIS cruiser at-sea detected, tracked and destroyed a ballistic missile. In eight at-sea tests, the Navy has been successful seven times.
–A Japanese Navy AEGIS destroyer performed a surveillance and tracking exercise during the test, marking the first time any U.S. ally has taken part in a U.S. missile defense intercept test. Japan’s indigenously produced destroyers combine U.S. and Japanese technology to provide the ballistic missile tracking system.
–A third AEGIS ship used in the test linked up with a land-based missile defense radar to evaluate the ship’s ability to receive and use target data from missile defense command centers. This vital technology, called “cueing,†allows sensors to inter-net missile tracking data from one platform to the next. This technique will allow, for example, sensors in Japan to detect a North Korean missile launch and initiate launch orders to interceptors at-sea; or in the United States.
–Japan took custody of a long-range X-Band ballistic missile tracking radar at a base in northern Japan. This radar will one-day become a critical link in the “cuing†effort should North Korea ever launch a ballistic missile armed with a nuclear weapon.
–Also in Japan, Foreign Minister Taro Aso and U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer, signed an agreement which commits the two countries to jointly produce interceptor missiles. By previous agreements, the United States has been sharing missile defense information with Japan. But this agreement also allows the transfer of ballistic missile defense technology from Japan to the United States, a breakthrough for Japan which since World War II has adhered to a self-imposed ban on arms exports.
–Finally, America’s initial land-based ballistic missile interceptors were placed on a full war alert. These few missiles have only undergone their initial testing; but under a philosophy developed by the Bush Administration to deploy capability incrementally (a little ballistic missile defense is better than none at all) these interceptors are now poised to face an attack by missiles on America.
These many achievements are neither an end nor a beginning. Rather, the ballistic missile defense effort, often-criticized, has been a long national investment effort of dollars, technology, but most importantly, the innovation and hard work of Americans and others.
Strategically, ballistic missile defense is changing the world. When Ronald Reagan made his famous missile defense address in 1983, “deterrence†was the trump card of the Soviet Union and the United States to “guard†against ballistic missile attack. That policy called for annihilation by nuclear weapons of the aggressor nation. Now, technology and years of hard work and scientific achievement have changed the strategic landscape.
Terrorists and rogue nations striving to attain nuclear weapons and long range missiles have also changed the strategic balance.
In an age where deterrence seems not to deter the likes of North Korea or Iran, and certainly not terrorists without a country, finally there are other options: missile defense options, for the President of the United States facing the bluster, coercion or even the warfare intent of another nation or even a terrorist cell.
President Reagan was right: we in the 21st Century and our children—plus a generation of those born since 1983, owe him their thanks and gratitude.
Mr. Carey served in the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and was the commanding officer of an AEGIS ship.