Speaking of outer space has anyone posted this information.
www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2002/b10142002_bt520-02.html
"MISSILE INTERCEPT TEST SUCCESSFUL
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced today it has successfully completed a flight test of
the ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) development program, intercepting an
intercontinental ballistic missile target. The test took place over the central Pacific Ocean in the
Western Test Range. A modified Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile target vehicle was
launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 10 p.m. EDT, and a prototype interceptor was
launched 22 minutes later and 4,800 miles away from the Ronald Reagan Missile Site Kwajalein
Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The intercept took place approximately six minutes
after the interceptor was launched, at an altitude in excess of 140 miles above the earth, and during
the midcourse phase of the target warhead's flight. This was the fifth successful intercept--and the
fourth consecutive--in seven flight tests since October 1999 for the GMD program.
This test involved for the first time the participation of a U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer, the USS John
Paul Jones, using its SPY-1 radar system. Although the radar was not integrated into the battle
management system for the intercept, it did gather important data on the capabilities of the radar
against a long-range ballistic missile. Future tests will include direct participation of the radar in
order to determine its potential capability against long-range missiles.
This system-level test successfully demonstrated "hit to kill" technology to intercept and destroy a
long-range ballistic missile target. In addition to the exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) locating,
tracking, and intercepting the target resulting in its destruction using only body-to-body impact, this
test also demonstrated the successful integrated operation of space and ground-based sensors
and radars, as well as the Battle Management, Command, Control and Communications System
(BMC3) function to detect the launch of the target missile, cue an early warning radar to provide
more detailed target location data; and integration of a prototype X-Band radar (based at Kwajalein)
to provide precise target data to the EKV, which received the target updates from the In-Flight
Interceptor Communications Systems (IFICS) at Kwajalein.
The EKV separated from its rocket booster more than 1,400 miles from the target warhead. After
separation, it used its on-board infrared and visual sensors, augmented with the X-Band radar data
provided by BMC3 via the In-flight Interceptor Communications System, to locate and track the
target. Sensors aboard the EKV also successfully selected the mock warhead from among the five
objects in the target array, including three decoys. Only system-generated data was used for the
intercept after the EKV separated from its booster rocket.
This test is a major step in an aggressive developmental test program, and we will continue to
pursue this testing regime to achieve a layered approach to missile defense, using different
architectures to deter the growing threat of ballistic missiles carrying weapons of mass destruction.
Over the next several weeks, government and industry program officials will conduct an extensive
analysis of the data received during the flight test to determine whether anomalies or malfunctions
occurred during the test, evaluate system performance and determine whether or not all flight test
objectives were met. Since the system is in the developmental phase of design and testing,
performance of individual elements and the overall system integration was as important as the
actual intercept.
News media points of contact are Cheryl Irwin, Defense Department Public Affairs, at (703)
697-5331, and Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, MDA External Affairs, at (703) 697-8997. "
Still may have some bugs to work out, obviously still in testing phase, but I believe the phrase "This
will NEVER work" was bandied about rather openly in Washington.
Welfare should work so well |
