BARKING SANDS — The Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility here will play only a small role in the most ambitious test to date of the National Missile Defense system. The results of the test, however, will have a huge impact
BARKING SANDS — The Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility here will play only
a small role in the most ambitious test to date of the National Missile Defense
system.
The results of the test, however, will have a huge impact on future
testing and operations here.
Vida Mossman, the missile range’s public
affairs officer, confirmed it will provide only tracking data when a missile is
launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and another missile launched
from Kwajalein Atoll attempts to knock it out of the air.
The “kill
vehicle” launched from Kwajalein will need to distinguish between the mock live
target and a decoy missile.
The Vandenberg launch is expected between 4
p.m. and 8 p.m. today, Hawai’i time.
The Ballistic Missile Defense
Organization’s National Missile Defense (NMD) Joint Program Office announced
the third NMD intercept flight test for today.
The NMD system now in
development is being designed to protect all 50 states from a limited,
long-range ballistic missile attack by a rogue state.
This will be the
first full-system test of the prototype NMD system, using current versions of
all the elements representing each part of a future operational system: *
Space-based, early-warning sensor.
* Ground-based, early-warning, tracking
and discrimination radar.
* Battle management, command, control and
communication.
* In-flight communication system and the interceptor missile
and kill vehicle.
“The July test will be our most demanding trial to date,”
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen said.
“It is an important part of our
effort to be in a position to deploy a national missile defense system by 2005.
The schedule is demanding, and the technical challenges are daunting, but so
far we are on track to meet the deployment target,” Cohen said.
Program
officials stated that today’s flight test depends on the readiness of all test
elements to meet specific requirements for performance, safety and system
integration.
The target missile, a modified Minuteman II intercontinental
ballistic missile carrying a single warhead target and a single decoy, will be
launched from Vandenberg.
About 20 minutes after the target missile lifts
off, an interceptor missile carrying a prototype “kill vehicle” will launch
from Kwajalein and be directed toward the target by data from the system’s
radar.
Approximately 10 minutes after launch, the interceptor is scheduled
to demonstrate “hit-to-kill” technology, with the kill vehicle discriminating
between the target and a decoy, homing in on the target warhead and colliding
directly with the warhead to destroy it.
The closing speed of the kill
vehicle and the target warhead will be more than 12,000 miles per hour.
This will be the third in a series of increasingly challenging and
realistic tests of NMD hit-to-kill technology. The first intercept flight
occurred in October 1999 and tested the ability of an interceptor to
discriminate between a target and a decoy and then destroy the target.The test
was a success. The second intercept test, which took place in January this
year, was more ambitious. It tested all of the elements of the system except
the in-flight communications link to the interceptor.
Officials said all
elements worked successfully in this first attempt to demonstrate the
capability of an integrated system.
However, the cooling system for the
infrared sensor in the kill vehicle failed, resulting in a miss in the last
five seconds. The problem with the cooling system, which had worked in the
previous test, has been identified and corrected, according to the Department
of Defense.
Today’s third intercept flight test will be progressively more
complex than the previous two. For the first time, the test will integrate the
in-flight communications system between the ground and the kill vehicle.
The primary purpose of the test is to help NMD program officials assess
the state of development of the proposed NMD system in order to provide
decision-makers with an analysis of program progress toward demonstrating the
overall technical feasibility of the system and of the current schedule.
A
Department of Defense assessment of technical feasibility to meet a
threat-driven 2005 initial capability is due to be made later this year.
In
order to deploy a national missile defense system by 2005, the United States
would have to build a new radar in Shemya, Alaska. In order to complete the
facility in time, a decision to start preparation of a site for that radar
would have to be made this year.
The department soon will issue a request
for proposals for work at Shemya, subject to a presidential decision to award
contracts and begin work.
This fall, President Clinton will review the
missile threat the nation faces, and analyze the technology, cost and
international security, including arms control, factors relevant to his
decisions concerning a national missile defense system.
Other important
pre-deployment decisions must be made as progress is reviewed in later
years.
At least 16 more intercept tests are planned by 2005, with eight
intercept tests scheduled to take place prior to 2003, when a decision is
scheduled on whether to produce interceptors for operational use.
Under
the current schedule, the system would achieve initial operational capability
in 2005, with the deployment of 20 interceptors. An additional 80 interceptors
would be in operation by 2007.
Staff writer Paul Curtis contributed to
this report.
