Missile Defense

Missile Defense Watch: White Sands THAAD Test – ” This Is Phenomenal”

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This time-exposure photo made available by the U.S. Department of Defense shows a test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), held in White Sands, NM, Wednesday, July 12, 2006. THAAD is designed to intercept and destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles high within the Earth’s atmosphere or just above the atmosphere in the final moments before it strikes its target.

Las Cruces Sun-News: White Sands missile test phenomenal’

It was a picture-perfect pre-dawn Wednesday and a picture-perfect launch at White Sands Missile Range.

Hundreds of miles above southern New Mexico, it was a picture-perfect impact between two missiles.

The morning sky above the Tularosa Basin was painted in every color of the rainbow — hues ranging from iridescent purples to emerald greens and pastel blues, pinks and electric whites against the darkness of space.

The pre-dawn art show was the result of the third of five tests planned at White Sands Missile Range to determine the effectiveness of THAAD — Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile. And military officials said the test went better than they could have hoped.

“This was phenomenal,” said U.S. Army Col. Charles Driessnack, the project manager for the Missile Defense Agency’s THAAD program. “It performed as expected.”

With all of the military and missile activity in the Middle East and Asia the THAAD system deployment will happen none too soon.

When fully operational, the THAAD system will provide quickly-deployable protection from missile attacks in any region needed, including homeland territory, Driessnack said.

He said the test indicates THAAD could be ready for emergency deployment “as soon as a year from now.”

Flap’s guess is that the manufacturers at Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will be working overtime for an emergency deployment fleet of missiles and launchers.

Stay tuned…….

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